Kingdom Under Siege
by Phoenix of the Darkness
Summary: AU. In a time where the first keyblade war was lost, some things have changed, while others are the same. Now, Sora must defeat a new villain, while protecting who he cares for most. Various pairings. Rated T for Violence, Language, and Mild Adult Themes
1. Aerith: This World

_Disclaimer: I own nothing here!_

**Aerith: This World…**

The church was quiet, but far from empty. In the front of it sat a flower girl wearing a long pink dress. Aerith smiled at the children around her, waiting intently. She wasn't just a flower girl, but she was also a mage, one of those few people with the natural gift for magic.

"Alright, so, what do you want to hear about?" Aerith asked, and a few of the children shouted aloud various story names. "Takezo Kensei and the Dragon," "The Four Warriors,"(1) and "Rapunzel" were among those said. But one boy shouted out loudly: "Tell us about the keyblade war!"

Aerith's eyes widened. "Are you sure? That isn't exactly a story meant for children." But most of the children shouted out agreement with him. It made sense. While yes, most of them had heard a little bit about it from their parents, they didn't know much about it. So it made sense that they wanted to hear about it. Aerith sighed. "Alright. I'll tell it. Do you want me to tell it, or show it?" She had the magical ability to manifest her magic into an false-solid (an illusionary) form, in order to show the story far more easily. As she expected, they wanted it to be shown.

"Very well. Now then," Aerith said, letting her magic flow with her words. "Once upon a time, five hundred years at least before now, there lived a man, the master of the mystical sword, called a keyblade. This man's name was Kaji, formally referred to as…"

_Master Kaji stood on top of the hill, bent down on one knee. His blond hair, reaching his neck, blew into his eyes, blue as the sky. He said nothing as he watched, the clouds overhead growing darker by the minute. He couldn't have been older than eighteen, and yet his eyes spoke of great experience in his life._

"_Kaji-kun?" said a delicate but firm voice. Kaji turned, and smiled. There stood his greatest friend, Blaze. In her right hand she held the Inverse Kingdom Key._

"_Blaze-chan, it's good to see you. I hope you are well," Kaji said, kissing her on the cheek._

_Blaze smiled. "I'm very well, thank you. The others are preparing for the battle ahead," she reported. "Zaon remains, as always, stubborn that this is a lost cause, but Byrn has it handled, I think."_

"_Gotta love that damn mouse," Kaji said with a grimace(2). Blaze laughed. "Love it when you laugh. What of Peter Pan? Is he still arguing with Genie?"_

"_They have put their differences aside, with a little assistance from myself." Blaze brushed a lock of her bright red hair away from her face. "As well as Kida. She is powerful. Then again, she is an Atlantean, after all."_

_Kaji grunted in agreement. "I still think that this is a poor choice."_

"_What are you talking--" Blaze realized what he was talking about. "Right, going to the world between worlds. Castle Memory."_

"_Why should the three of us have to go fight him alone?" Kaji asked. "Anything could happen. So what if I have the Kingdom Key, you have the Inverse, and Byrn has the Twilight Keyblade, Xantos could very well be twice as powerful as the three of us, combined!" Blaze put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm serious! We should go with the others, fight the army of Remnants!" Remnants were the physical manifestations of deceased souls, that wouldn't move on(3). "Then all of us can fight Xantos, together!" He shied away from her attempt at a kiss. "I'm going to my tent. Wake me in the morning, my love."_

_---_

_Kaji held Blaze in his arms. "Please, no, don't give up on me, Blaze, don't give up on me!"_

_She smiled faintly, despite the bloody wound in her stomach. "Kaji…I love you. I finally said it. Now I can rest. Please, do not mourn me or Byrn." Salty tears fell down Kaji's face. "Please, Kaji…let me go…" And with that, Blaze died._

"_No," Kaji said, shaking. He set Blaze's body down, and summoned his keyblade back to his hand. "YOU WILL PAY, XANTOS!!!" He drew his sword back, and ran at the Remnant of Lord Xantos, and attacked him with every fiber of his being._

_And in the end, Kaji, and the Warders, won. But at a horrible cost for themselves, and the future._

Aerith took a breath. "And that's where that part of the story ends."

"What would have happened if Blaze and Byrn Mouse hadn't died?" the boy who had suggested the story first asked.

Aerith shrugged. "There's no way to tell. Maybe none of this would be happening. Maybe we would be safe, or maybe things would be worse."

"Maybe the pizza plate wouldn't be there!" a little girl shouted out. Aerith smiled faintly.

"Yes, maybe we could see the sky, Marlene," Aerith said. "But we can keep on imagining it all though the night. You all need to be getting home. Your parents will be worried." The children left the church slowly, muttering to themselves. Aerith's face fell. "We can keep on imagining, but it won't change a thing." She sighed, and turned around to care for her flowers.

There was a creaking noise on the wood. Aerith turned, and gasped. A man stood in the entryway of the church. His leg was clawed, and he was limping horribly. He was probably somewhere around fifty years old. "Please, help me. A heartless got me, please, help."

Aerith quickly ran over to him, and helped him sit down in one of the pews. "This will only take a minute." He hands started to glow, as she healed his wound.

"You've got your own magic?" the man asked curiously. When the wound was healed over, leaving only scratches in his pant leg, Aerith nodded, and said "Yes, I do." A moment later, she froze, as a keyblade appeared next to her neck.

"Stand up slowly, Miss Gainsborough," said a man behind her. The other man that she had healed took a pouch of money from the Warder behind her. He looked at her, regret clear in his eyes. He probably had a family at home, starving. Aerith didn't blame him, for using an injury as a way of getting bread on the table, at least for a little while.

Aerith stood up, keeping the palms of her hands out. "The prison?"

"Most definitely," said the Warder. "Just keep moving, miss."

* * *

_(1) Also known as Final Fantasy I_

_(2) As could be guess, this Lord Byrn Mouse is the ancestor of Mickey Mouse._

_(3) To have an idea of what they're like, imagine the Hollows from Bleach, only less difficult to defeat, and none of that purifying business._

_This is the beginning of a fic I thought of, inspired by a picture on DeviantArt. It's an AU, and one that's very different...and there's no messed-up pairings, unless you consider TerraxAqua a messed-up pairing :D_

_I'm aware that this chapter could be considered plot-dumping, but I had to establish how the heck this happened. And essentially, in the true Kingdom Hearts timeline, originally, Byrn and Blaze did not die, because they didn't fight Lord Xantos at Castle Memory (later known as Castle Oblivion). Everything went all hunky-dory, and whatever. But, I'm ranting, I should let the story speak for me. This is basically just a prologue of sorts. The true story starts next chapter, about two months after this chapter. Reviews are truly appreciated, to whoever might read this!_

_And I promise that the other chapters after this will have much more story, and much less Author's Notes!_


	2. Sora: And So it Begins

**Sora: And So It Begins**

When the horn sounded, he was already awake, dressed, and ready to go. He hadn't been able to sleep much that night. He had been lucky enough to get one of the good bunks, under a window, so he could look out at the stars. He stood up from his bed, and grabbed the sword leaning against the bedpost. The shaft was dull silver, the handle was black, and the strike zone was shaped like a crown. No chain, of course. He hooked it onto his belt, ran his hands through his exceptionally spiky hair, and Sora headed out the 4th rank sleep chamber.

A teacher stood outside the door, and handed a granola bar and carton of milk to each boy that walked by. Sora munched down the granola bar and guzzled the milk. He wiped off the milk mustache, and went to the first class of the day for him, History. It really wasn't needed, as everybody had all of the knowledge they could possibly need. Really, it was just a bunch of dates that they had to memorize, then forget the second the test was over, lather, rinse, repeat.

Sora slid into his seat, and within minutes, class began. Today, they were studying the history of this place where they trained.

"As you know, students," the teacher, a rotund man with a large mustache, said, "most keyblade warriors were trained on worlds, until about 120 years ago, when it was suggested it would be better to train warriors in a neutral environment. Thus, the space stations were created. This one is Alpha Station, which moves mostly between Radiant Garden, Destiny Islands, and Twilight Town, but students from everywhere train here." Snore-fest.

A slight buzzing registered in Sora's ears. A few students near him raised their eyebrows, but otherwise ignored it. Despite the noise, the teacher physically could not hear it. You gotta love the mosquito ringtones.

Sora grabbed his cell phone, and flipped it open when the teacher turned away. Text message, of course. "Kairi," he whispered. It said: "**Whats up? History get u down?**"(1)

He sent a quick text back: "**Nuttin. Talkin about Alpha.**"

"**Boring?**"

"**Yup**," he confirmed.

"**Ready for exams 2-morrow?**"

Ah, the exams, the ones necessary to get into 3rd Rank. The ones Sora had failed twice already. He was always top in the practical, A.K.A. Fighting Tournament, winning every single time, but he could never get through the written portion. Kairi had passed first time, two months ago, as did Riku. But, there was Sora, who always failed to move up.

"**Gotta cram some, but I think I'll make it.**"

"**That's reassuring.**"

Sora bit his lip. "**Are you serious, or sarcastic?**"

"**What do u think?**"

"**IT'S A TEXT MESSAGE!**"

"**Oh. Right. Sarcastic.**"

Sora looked up, and realized with a relief that they had moved onto a new discussion, specifically, the Keyblade War, one of his favorite topics. "**GTG. C U L8R.**" He flipped the phone shut, and jammed it into his pocket.

"Can anybody tell me the name of the two parties in the Keyblade War?"

Sora raised his hand, and was called on. "The Warders, and the Chasers."

"Very good," the teacher said. "And could you tell me who commanded each army?"

"Master Kaji, the bearer of the Keyblade from the Realm of Light, and The Remnant of Lord Xantos, or Xantos for short."

"And who won the war?"

Sora sighed. "Well, some might say that Kaji won, because Xantos was destroyed. However, there were many casualties on the Warder's side, including the master of the Keyblade from the Realm of Darkness, Mistress Blaze, and the master of the Keyblade from the Realm of In-Between, Lord Byrn Mouse. Also, for an unknown reason, creatures of darkness that we call heartless sprang up, and started to attack worlds. They inadvertently merged with Remnants, causing them to become intelligent. Kaji created the Warders as we know them in order to battle the threat, a threat which remains today. So to answer your question, it was more that the Warders won the battle, but in some ways the war continues even until today. Nobody has won yet."

The teacher nodded. "I hope the rest of you were listening, because Sora's answer was perfect for answering an essay question on your exams tomorrow. Sora, you had the evidence to support your answer, and I would give you full points for an answer like that."

When it came to history as in specific dates and the creation of buildings, Sora couldn't focus ever. But when they talked about the Keyblade War, or the creatures that they fought (Heartless, Remnants, and Mixes), or TSUNAMI, Sora was the best, which helped to make up for his mediocre grade in Algebra.

The bell rang, and Sora groaned. The next class was, as fate would have it, Algebra. One of the worst classes of the day for him, simply because he couldn't focus.

"We'll be reviewing Trigonometry today, to prepare for your exams tomorrow," Mrs. G said. Sora's head slammed down on the desk. He groaned. Sine, cosine, tangent! What the heck did it all mean!

There was a knock on the door, and an older boy, probably 18, came in. He handed a note to Mrs. G, who read it over quickly. "Sora Tenshi, you're wanted in," she scanned the note again. Her eyes showed surprise. "Commander Terra's office."

The rest of the class, predictably, went "Ooooooohhhhhh."

Half of Sora was glad to get out of class, but the other half was scared out of his wits as to why Commander Terra wanted him.

Regardless, Sora left his seat and stepped through the door. He walked the silent hallways, his heart beating so loudly he could hear it. Or that could have just been the regular sounds of the Space Station Alpha.

The doors to the commander offices all worked like secretaries. Metal secretaries with a computer chip for a brain. "Identify yourself," the door said.

"Sora Tenshi, 4th Rank," he stated. A scanner checked his face, and a few seconds later the door unlocked.

Despite the fact that the door knew that Sora was there, and had probably told the Commander, Sora still knocked on the door. "Sir? It's Sora Tenshi. You asked for me?"

"Come in," said a voice slightly muffled by the metal.

Sora pushed the door open. Sitting at a seat behind a desk was a man who had been through a lot in his life, if the look in his eyes was anything to be determined. Strangely, Sora had never noticed that before. Any time the commander had made an announcement, it had been just over the overcom, or he had been too far away to see his face clearly.

Sadness. There was sadness in those eyes.

"Sit down, Sora," Terra said. Sora did as he was told, but remained tense. Terra laughed. "Don't worry, you aren't in any trouble. I thought that perhaps you would like to get out of Algebra for a little bit." Sora relaxed.

"Why did you call me down here?" he asked.

Terra sighed. "I wanted to give you a warning, Sora. If anybody were to find out that I told you this, then I would likely be imprisoned and/or killed. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Sora nodded quickly, and drew his hand across his mouth like he was zipping it up.

"Good," Terra said. He closed his eyes. "If you pass your exam tomorrow, and become 3rd Rank, there is a distinct possibility that you will be sent on a mission. I won't tell you details, but I will tell you that this will be difficult. You won't be sure who to trust, and who to avoid. But when it comes down to it, just trust your heart to it."

"Thank you," Sora said, but feeling uncertain about this. "Sir, can I ask you a question? It's, a bit of a personal question." Understatement of the year.

Terra narrowed his eyes. "I have a feeling that I'll regret this, but continue."

"Why are you sad?" Sora said bluntly. Terra raised an eyebrow. "I mean, your eyes, it looks like something's wrong."

"You're very odd, you know that?" Terra sighed. He looked up at the ceiling. "It's a complicated story, but I could probably make it less complicated. You'd probably miss the rest of Algebra.

"Myself, Ven, and Aqua were considered an unstoppable fighting force. We met when we first came to Alpha, and were fast friends. Until about seventeen, we stuck together, even gaining our keyblades from the same event." He summoned his keyblade, Warrior Heart, with the Kingdom Hearts emblem as a keychain, and dismissed it. "We promised each other that we would stick together. At 2nd Rank, we said that regarding 1st Rank, it was all of us or nothing.

"The day came when I was offered to become 1st Rank. I didn't even think of Aqua or Ven, but accepted immediately. Needless to say, my friends were not happy. I broke our promise. Eventually, we all became commanders, but we were no longer friends. Since the day after becoming 1st Rank, when they chewed me out over it, I have not spoken one word to either of them, and vice-versa. So now, you know."

Sora was in shock. This man, who was such a great hero, had forgotten about his friends. To Sora, a promise was important, and needed to be kept, no matter what happened to you in the process.

The awkward silence was broken by the bell. Sora stood up and saluted to Terra. "Thank you for your warning, sir." He turned to the door, and pulled on the handle. "Door's locked." Terra hit a button on his desk, and the door unlocked.

As Sora left the room, Terra stopped him. He pulled something from his pocket, and tossed it to the teenager. Sora examined it, and found it to be a magic charm. Each one accessed a different type of magic, and could be hooked onto a belt or necklace to be used. It was one of the only way to use magic for most people.

"Earth Element," Terra said, though it really wasn't necessary. The color of the gem was brown. "Keep it, it might come in handy."

"Thank you," Sora said. He held it tightly, and left the office finally.

_How could he do something like that? _Sora thought. _Maybe that's why Commander Aqua only teaches girls. And kicked Seifer's butt when he tried hitting on her._ Speaking of the Devil.

From around the corner came the "Alpha Disciplinary Committee." Seifer, Fuu, and Rai. How they ever got to be head of discipline, Sora would never know.

"Looks like somebody's late to class," Seifer said with a horrible smile. "You know what they say."

"What do they say?" Sora asked. "Seriously, I want to hear a bit of wisdom from the great Seifer Almasy."

When Seifer couldn't come up with an answer, Rai stepped in. "Seifer's not gonna give more words than he needs to you, y'know!" Sora's hand crept to his keyblade. It wasn't very sneaky, and Seifer noticed it.

"Hold on, we don't need to do that. Now, we'll let you go, for the usual fee."

Sora dug through his pocket, and came up with 50 munny. Crud. "It's all I got."

Seifer tsked. He summoned his keyblade, the Hyperion. The shaft and handle looked like a gunblade, and a cross of sorts made the strike zone and keychain(2). He held it with a reverse grip. "Then that means we have a problem." Rai grabbed Sora's arm so tightly Sora thought his wrist would break for sure. Fuu walked over, and checked the magic charms hooked to Sora's belt.

She ignored the basic elements almost everybody had, even (thankfully) the twice-upgraded ice element, Blizzaga. She stopped at the brown charm furthest from the clasp, the earth element. She grabbed it, much to Sora's dismay, and tossed it to Seifer.

He examined the charm with great interest. "Now, how did you get this? Probably stole it from a 1st Rank. Tell you what. I'll pretend I didn't find this, and you weren't late, and I get to keep it."

Sora considered it for a moment. "How about you shut up!" He kicked Rai in the shin, and elbowed Fuu. He grabbed his keyblade, and placed his left hand on his belt. The yellow charm glowed at his touch. "Thunder!" A bolt of lightling shot from his keyblade and struck the hand that Seifer held his charm with. The magic charm flew from his hand, and Sora jumped after it and grabbed it. "Yes!"

A sense of foreboding came over Sora. "The science teacher's right behind me, isn't he?" Seifer, Fuu, and Rai nodded.

Mr. Slider frowned. "Mr. Tenshi, if you don't mind joining us. Now, come along, class has begun." Sora reattached his keyblade and charm to his belt, and followed Mr. Slider into the classroom.

* * *

_(1) Plz excuse teh 1337-speak._

_(2) Basically looks like Seifer's gunblade in FFVIII, but with his cross-like emblem sticking out of the tip._

_Here we are, the actual beginning, and as you can see, things are majorly f*cked up. Sora's a little bit more rough, and Terra...well, Terra's a traitorous jerk. And yes, the Birth By Sleep trio are appearing in this. Because they're awesome. Though try to imagine them as about ten years older than they are in the screens. About 28, 27 then. A bit more mature (except with Ven) though they are a lot the same. Alrighty, then, reviews are appreciated!_


	3. Mickey Mouse: Observer From Afar

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. Which really sucks._

**Mickey Mouse: Observer From Afar**

Queen Minnie Mouse, of the Kingdom of Disney, walked through the streets of the village just in the shadow of the castle. She helped up a young girl who had fallen, and patted her on the shoulder. Minnie continued walking, and stopped at a house that was nearly falling apart. Horace Horsecollar sat on the front stoop dejectedly. Minnie tapped him on the shoulder, and they exchanged words. Horace gestured to his house, which was an utter mess, and inside was his wife, Clarabelle. She was expecting, and they had no way of taking care of a child. Minnie said something to him, and drew out a pouch that jingled. Horace said nothing, but merely shook Queen Minnie's hand furiously in thanks. She smiled, and continued on in her weekly walk through the town.

From high up, Mickey Mouse leaned on a wall, watching Minnie. "Isn't she amazing? She's so kind, so amazing. Would you look at those eyes? Like shining pools of ink. And her hands, they're so gentle, when she helps somebody."

"Well, why don't 'cha go talk to her?" Goofy asked. "What's not to like?"

Mickey sighed. "I can't. She's a queen, and I'm a, a, nothing. She'd never give me the time of day." He watched Minnie take a doll from some boys and give it back to the little girl they had stolen it from.

"But she's nice, isn't she?" Donald Duck asked. "She'd love ya!"

A voice floated up from the ground. "Hey you bozos! Get back to work! This supply building's not gonna build itself." Ah, Mortimer Mouse. Gotta hate that guy. While he wasn't a Warder himself, thank Kingdom Hearts, he was a suck-up, and made sure that all of their buildings got built, and Mickey and his friends most often ended up as the builders.

They jumped down to the ground, and got back into the rhythm they had going. Mickey whistled as he carried the bricks. He dropped them on the ground, and threw each one to Goofy, who placed it down right as Donald had spread mortar. Throw, spread, place, on and on, boring as sin.

Goofy placed a brick down, same as always, but this time, Donald had been just the littlest bit too slow, and the brick came down on his fingers. Goofy hyucked. "Sorry, Donald." But Donald was beyond apologies. He pointed his finger into the air, and a bolt of lightning zapped Goofy. Donald grabbed a pole sitting nearby and chased Goofy around, whacking him with the pole every once in a while.

Mickey slapped his forehead. "Those two'll be the end of us," he said, but laughed slightly. He chased after them, and pulled Donald back. "Come on, relax, relax!"

"STOP!" said a deep voice. They immediately stopped, and stood at attention. A man with a short keyblade stood less than two yards away, and had apparently seen everything. He narrowed his eyes, and called Mortimer over. "See that these three get docked. 1000 munny this time, half of their pay next time."

"Gladly done, sir," Mortimer said with a salute. Kiss-up.

For the next two hours, the three of them worked as fast as possible, never letting anything distract them from their work. It went flawlessly, and they even remembered the door. Once done, Mortimer reluctantly gave them each their 4000 munny for the job.

Later, they sat on top of Apple Hill, as they called it, named after the huge apple tree at the top of it. It was the most common place for the three of them to spend the night. No houses for them, since they barely made enough money to live on. Where they slept was pretty much always the same. Goofy slept right at the base of the tree, Donald slept in a spot between three branches, and for Mickey, he would either sleep on two branches or at the tree's roots, the latter if Pluto was around that night. Sometimes Pluto was around, sometimes he went off somewhere else.

This night, Pluto wasn't around, so Mickey had his spot in the branches. He looked up through the leaves, at the sky that was quickly turning black. He grabbed an apple and bit down on it, and savored the taste of apple juice.

Donald looked down at Goofy with a worried look on his face, and gestured to Mickey. Goofy winked, and said, "Heya, Mickey. What's worse than findin' a worm in yer apple?"

Mickey sighed. "I don't know, what?"

"Findin' half a worm in yer apple." He hyucked. When Mickey didn't laugh, he frowned. "What's wrong, Mickey?"

Mickey sat up on his branch and swung his legs. "Ever feel like you're not getting your full potential? Or that somebody's shorting you on who you could be? Donald, you're one of the best mages I know, but if you try using any sort of magic in public, you risk getting arrested. Goofy, you're, well, you're you. One of the kindest people I know, but you had to give up Max when he was five so he could get to a better home than you could provide. We could be so much more, but we're stuck cowing down to Mortimer to afford to feed ourselves." Neither of them had any answer to that.

"Speaking of eating," Donald interrupted, "why haven't you been eating as much? You've had noodles every day for the past three weeks!"

Mickey smiled mischievously. "Funny you should mention that." He stood up on the branch and balanced himself carefully. From a cluster of branches, he grabbed a burlap bag. He scooted back to his seat, and opened it up. He produced from it a blue shield with a gold crown imprinted on it, and a Mage's Staff. He passed the shield down to Goofy, and the staff to Donald. "I don't know. I guess I thought that we should have something, in case heartless attack." Mickey pulled out a short rapier for himself. He kicked himself up and balanced perfectly as he attacked an invisible enemy.

He wouldn't admit it to anybody, but Mickey had a fantasy playing in his head where heartless attacked the town while Minnie was around, he would appear like a knight in shining armor, and defeat the heartless with ease. They would fall in love, and live happily ever after. Right, not as long as the heartless were still around. Until the heartless were gone, nobody would have a happily ever after. That, and the Warders, with how they worked.

Mickey stabbed the branch with his sword, and it remained in place. Mickey laid down and closed his eyes. He welcomed sleep, as it took him away from reality and into dreamland.

He was awakened the next morning by Donald, just as the sun began to creep over the horizon. "Wake up! Wake up!"

"What is it?" Mickey asked with a yawn.

"The heartless! A ton of 'em! In the castle and there's nobody fighting!" At the word castle, Mickey's eyes widened. He grabbed his sword, and leapt from the tree. Donald and Goofy were quick to follow him.

At the base of the hill, three neoshadows were closing in on somebody. Mickey charged at the heartless, and cut them down easily. Years of manual labor were going to start to pay off. Mickey helped up the person, a woman in all black.

She groaned. "I really should have brought a few elixirs. Ran out of mana." A black mage, most likely. Mickey dug through his pocket, and grabbed an ether that an old woman had given him for helping her with her groceries. He offered it to the woman, who took it gratefully. She crushed it in her palm, and her magical energy was restored. "Thank you. I'm Lulu, and you are?"

"Mickey Mouse," he said, and shook her hand.

"Well, thank you, Mickey. If you don't mind, there are many more heartless to take care of, and naturally, the Warders are nowhere to be found." She ran off to battle more heartless. Not a second passed before Mickey ran off again, straight for the castle gates.

When he was about halfway through the town, which took him almost a half an hour since destroyed any heartless that he saw attacking people, the Warders finally started to appear. Thankfully, none of them took any notice of Mickey, Donald, or Goofy fighting. When it came to fighting, they were all on the same side. At least, as long as you weren't a member of TSUNAMI.

The castle gate was shut, and guarded by a positively huge man. "Let me through! I have to protect Queen Minnie."

The man laughed. "Everything is under control. We have three men in there right now, taking care of the queen." A bloodcurdling scream came from the tower, where Mickey knew for a fact that Queen Minnie slept.

"Does that sound like she's being taken care of?" Mickey asked. The man glared at him. He looked up, and straightened. Mickey turned around to see a younger man. He had spiky blond hair and blue eyes.

"Commander Ventus," the guard said. "How may I help you?"

"Is there a problem here?" Ventus, or Ven as he was more often called, replied.

The guard jerked his head toward Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. "These three want in, but I was ordered to not allow any civilians through the gate."

"I have to help Queen Minnie," Mickey insisted.

Ven looked at him, and his face grew hard. "I can't believe you would be this stupid! Can you not see that these three are the personal bodyguards to the queen!"(1)

"B-b-but, sir!" the guard stammered.

"No buts!" Ven said. "Let them do their job, or I will have you demoted to 3rd Rank! Do you want that!"

The guard shook his head, and stepped aside. Ven flipped his keyblade around in his hand, as he wielded it with a reverse grip, and pointed the Guardian Heart at the lock. A beam of light shot from the end, and the gate opened. All four of them headed through the courtyard, straight to the grand staircase. Just as they began to ascend it, heartless appeared.

Ven took up a battle position. "Go! I'll take care of these guys." Donald and Goofy quickly went up the stairs, but Mickey hung around for a second.

"Why did you lie to that guard?" he asked.

Ven sliced through a neoshadow. "Because you love her. Don't try to deny it, because it's true. Now go!"

"Thank you," Mickey said softly, before running after Donald and Goofy.

At the top of the steps, a wooden door barred their progress. "On three!" Donald shouted. They lined up along the steps, which were fairly wide. "1! 2! 3!" On three, they charged forward and hit the door with all of their strength. The door cracked, and with a fire spell from Donald, it fell completely. Mickey ran inside, and a shriek rang out.

In the corner of the room, Queen Minnie had her back to the wall, a strange type of heartless coming at her. It looked like a knight of some sort, so its face was covered, but its golden eyes still stared out. When Mickey entered the room, it whirled around and drew the short sword from its belt.

"_You will leave, or die_," it said in a hissing voice. A sentient heartless, one combined with a remnant.

Mickey presented his rapier. "En-garde."

The heartless made the first move, and that was exactly what Mickey was hoping for. He parried as he shouted out "Donald! Help the Queen!" As Mickey sparred with the heartless, fairly easy actually, Donald made his way to Queen Minnie. He cast a reflect spell that covered both of them.

"This'll stay up for a while," Donald said proudly. "At least long enough for Mickey to beat the heartless!"

Mickey thrusted hard to knock the sword out of the heartless's hand, and stabbed the point of his sword straight into its chest. "Touché." The heartless screeched in pain, before vanishing. A heart floated up through the ceiling. "One down, a million to go," Mickey said.

He then went to Queen Minnie. He helped her up from the ground, which Donald had failed to do. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes, I think so," Minnie responded. "Thank you, so much. May I know the names of my heroes?"

Mickey laughed nervously. "Mickey. Mickey Mouse," he said. "Donald, and Goofy. We live down in the town."

Minnie's face grew worried. "You aren't, um, members of you-know-what, are you?"

"No! Not at all!" Mickey said. "Though to be perfectly honest, your majesty, I personally don't see what's so bad about them."

"To be perfectly honest," Minnie said slyly, "neither do I. It's just that if you were, then I'd want you three to get out quickly." She smiled. "So you obviously aren't Warders, and you aren't members of TSUNAMI. Who are you?"

Mickey shrugged. "Just three guys with a sword, shield, staff, and an inseparable friendship."

---

That afternoon, the three of them walked through the town, trying to find a job they could do. The heartless hadn't caused very much damage, which was good, but that meant that nobody needed any rebuilding.

"Hey, you three!" In a spot between buildings, was a woman clothed entirely in black.

"Lulu!" Mickey exclaimed. She shushed him. "Sorry. I wondered what happened to you after you ran off."

"Destroyed a couple dozen heartless, but that's beside the point." She gestured for them to come into the alley. "Is it true that the three of you saved Queen Minnie? And that you beat a Musketeer heartless, Mickey?"

He nodded. "What about it?"

"Follow me." She led them down to a locked root cellar. Lulu knocked on the door five times, then whistled twice. The door unlocked, and flew open. To reveal another plank of wood.

A piece slid aside. "Password?" asked a voice even higher than Mickey's.

Lulu stamped her foot in impatience. "There is no password!"

"And that's the password!" The plank of wood slid up completely. Lulu stepped down carefully, followed by the trio.

Inside was a table, seated with two chipmunks, a humanoid creature covered in fur called a Ronso, and a familiar face to Goofy.

"Maxie!" he exclaimed, and embraced his son in a big hug.

"Dad, dad!" Max said, trying to push Goofy away. "Chill out, I'm fine. These guys have helped me out."

Mickey looked around. "You're part of TSUNAMI, aren't you?"

Lulu smirked. "Smart. Yes, we are. And we would like to extend to the three of you an invitation to join us. As you can see, we don't have many members, at least in the Kingdom of Disney. Not many people here can fight."

"What would we do?" Mickey asked.

"Here, as it isn't very populated, you'd just be fighting heartless any time they would show up. I would be able to provide you with magic charms. I haven't many on my person currently, as I require some certain bits and pieces to create them, and a full moon, but I do have a one-time upgraded fire element, ice element, and electricity element."(2)

Mickey turned to Donald and Goofy. "What do you guys think?"

"I don't know 'bout you two," Goofy said, "but I'm stickin' with Maxie!" Max rolled his eyes.

"Donald?"

The duck thought for a moment. "I'll stick with you two."

Mickey turned back to Lulu. "We accept."

* * *

_(1) Ven's a bad boy._

_(2) In other words, Fira, Blizzara, and Thundara._


	4. Sora: 3rd Rank

**Sora: 3****rd**** Rank**

All that was between him, and his mood for the rest of the day, was a corkboard. Sora swallowed. "I can't look. Riku, look for me!"

"What's the worse that could happen?"

"He could have failed Algebra again," Kairi pointed out. Sora nodded. "I'll look for you." She stepped up to the board. For a minute, Sora was shaking in his boots. She turned back to him and smiled. "You did it! You got a C in Algebra, and aced History!" Sora punched his fist in the air.

"Finally!" he exclaimed.

"Tell me about it," Riku said. "I started to think you'd never make it." He summoned his keyblade. The shaft was shaped like a bat's wing, and the handle combined a dove's wing and bat's wing. The strike zone had three fangs like you'd see on a snake. The keychain was a heart of sorts, with vines crossing through the middle. The Soul Eater. "I bet it won't be long until you both make 2nd Rank."

A voice boomed over the intercom. "Will all 4th Rankers who passed their exams, please report to room 376. Again, 4th Rankers who passed their exams, report to room 376 for room assignments."

"That's me!" Sora said cheerily. "See you guys later!"

He whistled as he walked through the halls, a tune he had heard somewhere. He couldn't recall the origin of it, but he wasn't thinking about that. He was just thinking about the fact that he was finally going to get an insignia. There were three different levels, gold, silver, and bronze. He would naturally be getting bronze. 2nd Rank was silver, and 1st Rank was gold. All that 4th Ranks got was their brand, as most people called it, despite the fact that it wasn't a brand at all.

Sora rolled up his left sleeve. There it was, the blue, keyhole-shaped tattoo showing the fact that he had trained to fight with a keyblade. That was the way of being able to tell whether someone was truly a Warder or not. Check their arm.

Finally, he reached room 376. When he stepped in, nobody was left. They had probably all gotten there as quickly as possible, then went off to their new rooms. A woman with glasses on the tip of her nose stood at the front desk.

"Name?" she asked.

"Sora Tenshi," he said proudly.

The woman searched through the file on the desk, and pulled one out. "You have room 725. This file has your schedule, which had been adjusted to fit your strengths, as well as lists of rules and expectations concerning your room." She drew from the file a key. "This will open only your room. I would advise placing it on a lanyard." She handed the key and the file to Sora, and sat down.

"Ma'am?" he asked cautiously. "My insignia?"

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Right, I apologize. Like my father always said, three things happen to you when you get older. Your hair goes gray, you start to lose your memory." She didn't continue, and it took a second for Sora to get a joke. He half-laughed. "Yes, yes." She reached into her pocket, and drew out the bronze insignia. She handed it to Sora.

"Thank you, ma'am." Sora turned, and left, the insignia tight in his fist.

While he walked, Sora pulled out the schedule, and smiled widely. Sword-fighting lesson, magic practice, and one-on-one sparring. That was it, and magic practice was only every other day. The rest of the time he had for whatever he wanted to do, so long as he didn't just wander the halls. He could go to the simulator room and fight enemies, visit the library, or nap. He just couldn't miss any meals or scheduled classes.

"723, 724, and 725." Sora stopped, and inserted his key into the lock. When he opened the door, he smiled. A bed, not a cot, carpet instead of cold metal, a closet, and a dresser. "I finally made it." He fell backwards onto the bed. "So soft," Sora said, his voice thick with ecstasy.

"Knock knock." Kairi stepped inside. She looked around. "Not bad. I'll take it you like your bed?"

"So soft," Sora said again. A goofy smile was spread across his face. "I like my bed."

Kairi laughed. "Since classes are over for today, what d'you want to do?" She got her answer in the form of a snore. She smiled. "Lazy bum." She stepped out of the room quietly and closed the door behind her.

---

The sparring room was filled with all sorts of equipment, meant to mimic the different areas that you could end up fighting in. Then there was a rock wall, a trampoline. Then, there was the zero-g station. Each fighter was hooked up to a special harness, which would effectively eliminate your weight, without limiting movement.

Sora pushed off the wall and crashed against his opponent's blade. This guy came from the same world he did, Destiny Islands, but they hadn't ever met. His name was Tidus, and was a 3rd Rank like himself.

"Thunder!" Sora shouted. A blast of electricity flew at Tidus, who shrugged it off easily. He held his hand in the air, and a shimmering red clock face appeared near his hand. The hour and minute hand stopped on midnight, and Tidus suddenly seemed to speed up. That, or Sora slowed down a lot. Tidus blasted himself backward with a burst of wind, and pushed himself back at Sora by kicking off the wall. He slammed Sora in the gut with his keyblade. Time went back to normal speed.

Sora placed his hand on his belt, and the light blue ice element charm glowed. "Blizzaga!" Blasts of ice flew at Tidus faster than he could dodge, and his opponent's right arm was frozen solid, and his keyblade flew through the air and hit the opposite wall. Sora held his keyblade to Tidus' neck. "Dead."

Their harnesses slowly let them down to the ground. The instructor who had been watching them spar, a 2nd rank black woman called Amari(1), immediately treated Tidus' frozen hand. "Esuna," she said. The ice melted away. "Heal." Green light enveloped Tidus' hand and he clenched his knuckles. Good as new.

Tidus walked over to Sora and held out his hand. Sora shook it. That was a way to tell a guy who could be an ally from a guy who was more likely to end up as a rival. If they shook your hand after losing to you, then they didn't have any hard feelings. It wasn't something Sora learned, it was just a bit of common sense.

When Tidus had left, Sora was about to leave when Amari stopped him. She pointed at a cut on Sora's shoulder. "This shouldn't take more than a moment." She placed a hand on the cut, and it glowed white. Sora held himself still. Every time he got healed from a cut, it itched like crazy while it healed.

"Thank you, ma'am," he said, examining the place where the cut had been. No mark at all, naturally. Amari was one of the best healers of the Warders. It had surprised Sora when he found out that she was not only second rank, but also not a commander, with how great she was. She was one of the best magic teachers, mostly dealing with White Magic, and most trainees liked her a lot. She knew what they liked, and didn't just lecture. They didn't even have to call her Mrs., but that was mostly because she didn't have a surname.

That always made him curious, and before he knew he was talking he asked "Why don't you have a last name? Why don't you choose one for yourself?"

Amari raised an eyebrow. "You don't think before you talk, do you?" Sora shook his head. Amari laughed. "I never had one, and I don't need one. In the place I grew up in, nobody needed a family name, since we were all one family. When I was fourteen, I was taken away to another world, made a slave, and was rescued from my owners by the Warders, as well as my friend Polly." She furrowed her brow, like she had just remembered Polly. "Right. So, I joined the Warders when I was given the chance. Never took on a last name. My owner, Clay Derby, said that I was Myna Derby." She snorted. "I hated those men. So, so much." She sighed, and looked at Sora. "Do you always have people dumping out their life stories to you?"

"More often recently," Sora admitted. "So, you're second rank. What's your keyblade? I've never seen you use it."

Amari held out her hand, and a keyblade flashed into her hand in a burst of golden light. The shaft, strike zone, and handle were shaped like vines and leaves of all sorts. The keychain was shaped like the sun, and glowed with its own light. "Copper Sun." It vanished again.

"Thank you, ma'am." Sora bowed slightly, and left Amari to her business.

Sora walked through the halls, trying to figure out what to do. The one-on-one sparring was the last thing he had to do today. Maybe he could head over to the library and look for something good to read. He didn't watch where he was going, and walked straight into somebody. When he saw who he ran into, he apologized immediately. "Master Leo! I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going, sir. It was completely my fault."

Master Leo, who was the head of Alpha, waved aside the apology. "It's perfectly alright. I was actually looking for you. There are things that need to be discussed." Sora walked behind Master Leo, who led him to his office.

They both sat down. "Sora, would you be willing to take on a mission?"

"It depends on what the mission is."

Master Leo smiled. "Good answer. Lately, TSUNAMI has been very . . ." He hesitated while he searched for a word. "Daring. They been picking bigger and bigger fights lately. We have been planning for a while to send in somebody who can infiltrate TSUNAMI's ranks. You look like somebody who could do this successfully. You are one of the best trainees in terms of fighting ability. What do you say?"

"What would I have to do?" Sora asked. It was best to know what you had coming for you with these things.

"Basically, you would keep an eye on their actions, and warn us when they were planning something," he explained.

"I think that I could do that," Sora said. In reality, he was pumped to be able to go out and do a real mission, get off the Space Station Alpha. Yeah, Radiant Garden was a really urban area, high population and whatnot, but still.

Master Leo nodded. "Good. Now, what weapons can you use besides your keyblade? Obviously, you could use just a normal sword, but I feel that it would be best to know."

Sora thought for a moment. "I'm okay with any sort of sword. Except for maybe one of those huge ones, y'know? But I'm also not a bad mage. Though that's just something that I mix in with melee fighting."

Master Leo thought for a moment. "You fight two-handed, correct?"

"Yes, but I can fight one-handed."

The keyblade master snapped his fingers. "I've got it." He stood up from his seat and opened a cabinet on the wall. He reached inside and pulled out a sheathed hand-and-a-half sword. The sheath was all-black, with a rune of some sort on the side. The handle was made of wood, painted black.

Master Leo drew the sword from the sheath, and Sora couldn't help but gasp at the magnificence of the blade. It was shaped perfectly, and the blade was the color of gold. Master Leo flipped it over to reveal a scratch along the blade. "This was the sword wielded by Master Kaji before he gained the keyblade. Nakage(2)." Sora searched his limited knowledge of other languages, and came up with nothing. "Storm Rider, it was named. It is enchanted to never break or dull, and was only scratched through the work of Lord Xantos." Master Leo sheathed the sword. He held it out to Sora, who handled it carefully.

"You want me to use it?" Sora asked. This was probably the only remaining artifact of Kaji's. He just couldn't believe it.

"You may borrow it, for the moment. If you succeed in this mission, I may allow you to use it when you have an undercover mission like this one." He straightened. "You will leave in the morning, via gummi ship. I expect no less than success on this mission, Sora."

Sora nodded. "Yes sir!" He bowed, then turned around and left the office. Once outside, he did not go straight to his room, but stopped to examine Nakage. He drew it from the sheath, and looked at the blade. His eyes reflected back at him, bright blue. "Storm Rider," Sora said quietly. "I can't believe it." The handle was the same one Master Kaji had once held. So much history, and Master Leo was entrusting Sora with it.

Back in Sora's room, he dug out a strap for the sword, and clipped it on. He then slung it over his shoulder. He reached back, and was able to easily grab the handle. Sora whipped out Nakage and did a series of cuts and stabs. It was perfect.

Only when Sora was about to sheath it did he notice something in the pommel. At first he thought that it was a magic charm, but upon close examination he realized that it was a summon gem of some sort. He only knew it because Riku had shown him one he had obtained on his own mission, in the past week. Riku's had been black, with flames going through it every once in a while, but this one was orange, yellow, those sorts of colors. Sora closed his eyes, and gripped the pommel. The sound of a hawk's cry filled his ears, but that was it.

"That's a plus, for sure," Sora said. He sheathed Nakage and pulled the strap off. He placed the sword down carefully on the dresser. He opened up the bottom drawer of the dresser, where he had the only clothes of his that weren't part of his uniform. How he got them, well, some of the other guys got sent out on missions pretty often, and you'd be surprised how much you can trade for your cookie from lunch for a week.

There was a blue undershirt, and a black vest with a hood for no real reason. Then there was a pair of black pants. Simple black shoes with straps, not laces. Sora laid them on the dresser, and grabbed a cloak of sorts from the very bottom of the drawer. It was a tan fabric, and only went down to the waist. But the hood covered his head well, so it could come in handy(3). He placed it down on the table.

"Time for bed!" Sora said. He pulled off his uniform, a self repairing sleeveless suit with black armor on the shoulder, chest, and legs. Sora yanked his undershirt over his head, and pulled off his belt. He looked at the different magic charms on it, from flame element to the earth element he had obtained from Terra. He placed the belt on the dresser, and jumped into his bed. He flipped off the light, and quickly fell asleep.

---

The gummi garage was on the lowest level of Alpha. Sora had his uniform on, but would get into his other clothes as soon as he was in the gummi, and could flip on the auto-pilot. Nakage was strapped to his back, and his belt was around his waist, with all of his charms on it.

The gummi engineer, a young man in a grease-covered suit, said, "Okay, your gummi's ready to go. Anytime you're ready."

Sora nodded, and turned to Riku and Kairi. "I'll be seeing you guys. Keep Riku away from the girl's wing, Kairi." Riku glared at him.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?"

"Nope," Sora said cheerily.

Riku rolled his eyes, but was smiling. "Good luck, you're gonna need it." He left Sora and Kairi alone, since he had a one-on-one fight.

Sora rocked back and forth on his feet. Kairi smiled half-heartedly. "Just . . ." Sora looked up. "Come back in one piece, okay?" she finished. "From the sounds of it, this'll be dangerous. If you're found out, then who knows what TSUNAMI could do to you?"

Sora thought for a moment. "Torture me into giving them information, lock me up for a bit, then kill me in a violent manner." Kairi didn't laugh. Sora placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'll be fine. I'm really good at pretending to be somebody else. Remember when I disguised myself for three weeks straight?"

"Right, you pretended that you were your own cousin," Kairi recalled. "You acted really emo, down to the make-up. I still don't know how you pulled that off on the teachers."

"Neither do I," Sora said. "Neither do I."

Kairi nodded. "Okay, but here." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a star-shaped charm of sorts. Sora immediately recognized it as being made from thalassa shells. Kairi reached out for Sora's hand and handed it to him. She closed his fist around it. "It's my lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to me."

Sora smiled. "Don't worry, I will."

"Promise?" Kairi pressed.

"Promise," Sora replied. "But, I gotta ask. Where'd you get the thalassa shells from?"

Kairi coughed nervously. "You know how I wasn't around for a few days, back when I first got 3rd Rank? Well, I got sent with a few others to check out Destiny Islands, make sure that there weren't any problems. While I was there, I found some of these shells, and I remembered how you said that sailors thought they were good luck."

"Why didn't you tell me and Riku about it?"

"I guess, I didn't want you guys feeling bad that I got to go, but you didn't, even though it's your homeworld," Kairi admitted.

"Thanks. And don't worry, I'll be fine." He turned away from her and went over to the gummi engineer. "I'm ready." Sora walked by the engineer and waved to Kairi before entering the small gummi.

Once in the cockpit, Sora hit a button on the dashboard, and the main door closed. The screen lit up. "All systems are go," the automated voice said.

Sora hit the big green button, and the gummi ship rose a bit into the air. It hovered along a preset track, to a point where it could safely deploy. A deep voice came in over the radio. "Are you ready for launch?"

"You bet! I mean, yes, sir," Sora corrected himself. The airlocks opened quickly, making a long path out into space. Sora grabbed the controls, ready to head out. From under the ship, a hole opened up, and the gummi dropped down through the hole into space.

Sora's eye twitched. His fingers dug into the dashboard. "I hate that part." He set the gummi ship's autopilot for Radiant Garden, and started pulling on his clothes.

The ship quickly reached the city of Radiant Garden. This gummi was meant for speed, not comfort. Sora checked his belt, and Nakage. Everything checked out perfectly. "Look out TSUNAMI, because here comes Sora Tenshi."

* * *

_(1) Amari comes from the novel "Copper Sun." I had just read that book when I wrote this chapter, and I couldn't resist putting her in._

_(2) Yes, I completely made that up._

_(3) His street clothes look like his clothes from KH2, but pants instead of shorts, and his shoes look more like Roxas's. His cloak resembles the one that Yuffie wore in Dirge of Cerberus._

_I wanted to mention that in terms of age for the main trio, right now we'd be about two months before KH2 in the canon timeline, but this is going to go through KHII and beyond that in the timeline. So, yeah, they're more mature._


	5. Aqua: Lost

**Aqua: Lost**

Peace and tranquility. Yes, this was what she liked, being by herself, no interruptions from stupid guys and midgets asking for advice. So calming, this silence. Nothing from the outside permeating her sanctuary.

"Commander Aqua!" She opened one eye, and sighed.

"It was good while it lasted," Aqua said sadly. "Yes?"

"Your presence is requested in office 313, at once."

"And if I say no?"

The dispatcher sighed in exasperation. "Just go, alright? I don't need any more stress."

She laughed. "Understood. I'll be right there." She stood up, and checked herself in the sole mirror in her room. Not an office, she found those to be rather stuffy. Just a larger bedroom, with some plants around it.

Aqua ran her hands through her hair, and left the room. She walked straight to where the office would be. She couldn't recall who was in 313. Probably an instructor who wanted her to give a demonstration. Aqua snorted. Those instructors were a bunch of morons. None of them had made it past 3rd Rank, with the exception of those who taught sword-fighting or high level magic. It might work differently in other stations, but that was how it worked here.

"Identify yourself," the automated voice said.

"Aqua Prudentia, 2nd Rank, Commander," she said blandly. The scanner checked her face, and the door clicked open. Aqua pushed open the door. When she saw who was sitting in the chair, she swore. "I'm outta here." She turned around and tried to open the door again. It had locked behind her. "Let me out," she said through gritted teeth.

"Aqua, please sit down," Terra said as though he weren't the worst traitor Aqua had ever met in her life.

"How about you go jump off a bridge?" she suggested. He didn't respond, and Aqua reluctantly sat down. "What the hell do you want me for?"

"There's somebody you need to train, Aqua," Terra said. "It's not some kid that has no magical talent at all, in fact just the opposite."

Aqua sighed. "Kairi Hikari, 3rd Rank. Powerful mage, gentle fighting style, fast, and to wrap it all up, Princess of Heart." Terra raised an eyebrow. "What do you think I do whenever I'm not on a mission of some sort? I've been keeping an eye on her, ever since she first came here. I realized that she was a Princess the second I saw her face. I've been waiting for the go-ahead for years now."

Terra blinked. "Oh, alright then. I guess that you can go ahead with it then. Will you need an empty room for teaching in?"

"You're joking, right?" Aqua asked. When Terra didn't respond, Aqua sighed. "I can't teach Kairi in the Alpha, much less a stuffy abandoned classroom. Fresh air, sunlight, the grass under our feet. That's what I need."

"Aqua, you are the single biggest hippie I've ever met in my life," said a familiar voice to both of them. Ven leaned against the wall. How he had gotten into the office, neither of them knew, and it was likely that Ven didn't know either.

"Ven, get out," Aqua said. She seemed closer every second to barbequing them. She could do it, they knew that it was possible. "I'm serious, get out, or so help me--" Terra muttered something under his breath. Aqua narrowed her eyes. "What did you say? Did you just call me a bitch?"

"Maybe," Ven said cheerfully. "Or maybe he just wants to make you his bitch."

Aqua slapped her forehead. "Ven, this is why I don't want to talk to you. You try to make every conversation as perverted as possible. You just need to grow up, and Terra, you need to learn to keep a promise, and return things when somebody lets you borrow them. Speaking of which, I don't think you ever returned my summon to me." She held out a hand. Terra dug through his pocket, and pulled out an ocean-green summon gem.

"I actually have tried to return it to you," he said matter-of-factly. "You just avoided me every time I tried, so I gave up after a while. I didn't trust anybody else to return it to you, because I knew that it was not only one of your best summons, but your favorite one, not to mention completely unique."

Aqua snatched it away. She examined it carefully, and closed her eyes. The sound of the ocean's waves filled her ears before fading away. "Thank you," she said. She turned, pushed Ven out of the way, and opened the door. She stopped just long enough to say: "I'll be taking Kairi to Twilight Town. It's very peaceful, and the heartless rarely attack."

In the hall, Aqua did not make eye contact with anybody. She just walked straight to the training room, where she knew that Kairi had a match today.

Aqua was somewhat glad that Amari was the instructor in the training room this week, because she would certainly let Aqua watch a match. Some people, men in particular, wouldn't want any supposed distractions.

"Hello, Aqua," Amari said. "Do you need something?"

"I wanted to watch this match," Aqua explained. "The one with Kairi in it. Who's she facing?"

Amari's bit her lip in thought. "Fuu."

"Isn't that the girl with the eye patch? Part of the Disciplinary Committee?" Amari nodded. "This is going to be interesting, then." She looked over to the other side of the ring, where Kairi and Fuu were getting ready to fight. Fuu's friends, Seifer and Rai, were there to cheer her on. Generally, Amari would let somebody's friends come to cheer for their friend as long as they didn't cheer negatively for the other person.

Kairi and Fuu stepped into the ring. Amari called out "Draw your weapons!" Both grabbed their keyblades from their belts. On examination, Aqua could see an advantage for Kairi. While Fuu had to depend on her magic charms, which were a wind-element and healing-element, the former upgraded once, Kairi was able to naturally use magic. "Ready, duel!"

Fuu immediately placed a hand on her belt. "Wind," she said. A cloak of wind swirled around her. She went after Kairi, who had to keep up with Fuu's speed. Strikes came from everywhere.

"Reflect!" Kairi shouted. A barrier appeared, and it exploded out to sent Fuu skidding backward. "Water!" A burst of water came from Kairi's keyblade, but was sent away by Fuu's Aero spell.

"Come on, use a Dispel," Aqua murmured. "Of course, she might not know how to do a Dispel. I'll have to remember that."

Amari raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well . . ." Aqua figured she could trust Amari. She was one of the few friends she had made since the incident with Terra and Ven. Aqua whispered into her ear "You know what a Princess of Heart is, right?" Amari nodded slowly, and her eyes widened. Aqua nodded. "Yep. And I'm to teach her. Not just about that, but about her skill with magic in general. Even if she weren't a Princess, she would still probably be able to use natural magic, instead of charms."

Fuu held her keyblade precisely, and threw it hard. It spun through the air, and slammed right into Kairi before returning like a boomerang. Rai chimed in from the sideline. "You're not gonna stand a chance, ya know!" Amari glared at him, and he shut up.

Kairi stood her ground. Fuu shook her head, and cast a powerful aero spell that Kairi had to work to fight against. Fuu ran at Kairi and sent her flying into the air with the handle of her keyblade. Fuu jumped into the air, and slammed Kairi back down to the ground. The former landed gracefully, while the latter stayed kneeling on the ground. Her keyblade lay some twenty feet away, out of the ring. If Kairi left the ring to get her keyblade, it was a disqualification.

"Give up," Fuu said quietly. Her face was a blank, but the look in her eye--quite literally, eye--said that she was ready to kick Kairi's butt until she ended up in the med ward for a few weeks.

Aqua watched, sorry that she wasn't able to help. She wasn't sure whether she wanted Kairi to keep on fighting, or give up so that she wouldn't get hurt much more. Aqua saw Kairi's eyes look around, and up at Fuu.

Energy danced around Kairi. She spun her legs around like a break-dancer, and while she wasn't able to knock Fuu down, it gave Kairi a chance to get up, and punch Fuu in the shoulder. Electricity came from the point of contact. Kairi rolled around Fujin, to the left side where she wouldn't be able to guard very well, and kicked her in the side of the stomach. A slight crack was heard, and a rib definitely broke. Fuu inadvertently cried out.

Fire gathered around Kairi's fist. She held it near Fuu's face, in a manner so that her opponent would not be able to avoid it. "I will never give up," Kairi said. The flames vanished, and the exhaustion appeared to set in.

"Heal." Kairi breathed a little bit easier, thanks to Aqua's Curaga spell.

Kairi looked up, and straightened when she saw who it was. "Thank you, Commander Aqua."

"One, relax, and two, please don't call me commander," Aqua said. "Just Aqua will do fine." A popping noise filled the air as Amari healed Fuu's broken rib. Aqua blinked. "That was odd. Anyways, I was hoping I could talk to you." She gestured to a bench against the wall. Kairi sat down in it, and Aqua sat beside her.

"Let's see. Well, you have a lot of magical ability Kairi, but you don't know quite how to use it. At least not to its full extent. I have been asked by the higher-ups to train you in magic. As the Alpha isn't a very good place for learning to control magic--you have no idea the kind of damage you can cause while doing a meteor spell--we would be going to a world called Twilight Town. Do you have any problems with that? Remember, you don't have to--"

Kairi interrupted her. "Are you kidding me? With how many times my magic has gone haywire in the middle of class? Once I got mad at a teacher, and I almost blew up the science lab!" Aqua could definitely relate to that. "I have no problems, Aqua. When do we leave?"

"As soon as humanly possible," Aqua said, relieved that this had gone so smoothly. "Say whatever goodbyes you need to, get any other clothes you might have, and we can probably get out before dinner. I need to grab a few of my things, and I'll be waiting for you at the gummi garage."

---

The flight in the gummi ship was rather uneventful. No heartless ships, no asteroids barely avoided, nothing. The ship landed in a small out-of-the-way spot, and Aqua led the way to into the town itself. It was peaceful, but as always people got out of the way of Aqua and Kairi, seeing their uniforms. It was always the uniforms, but never the faces, that people remembered.

"Why do they seem so afraid of us?" Kairi asked.

Aqua raised an eyebrow. "You really don't get out much, do you?" She sighed. "It's because of some of the Warders, who think that they're so much better than the people. For example, I heard about how a man was running to get medicine for his daughter, right? And he accidentally ran into a Warder. The man apologized, but the Warder didn't care. The man was thrown into prison. It's disgusting, really. And I'm afraid to say that most Warders are like that. You know Seifer Almasy? His father was like that, and I'm sure that Seifer will end up like that."

"That's horrible," Kairi said. "How can people act like that?"

"It's what they're taught, and it's a trait of humanity. Make yourself feel strong by picking on the weak. One thing you'll notice about most of those people, is that they had good childhoods leading up to joining the Warders. Thing is, I grew up knowing what it's like to have the threat of arrest or worse hanging over you, so when I was recruited I vowed that I would never let myself be like that." Aqua stopped when they were at . . . a wall. The only thing out of place was a few planks of wood blocking it off with a sign that said "Danger, keep out."

Aqua grabbed the wood and pulled it to the side. "This way." Kairi ducked down through the hole, and emerged in a forest. Aqua followed behind and pulled the wood back in front. "That's just to deter people." She walked through the forest, pushing logs to the side with Kairi's help.

"Couldn't you just use your magic?" Kairi said, while they were trying to move a particular stubborn tree. Aqua stopped completely. She slapped herself on the forehead.

"I'm such an idiot," she said. Aqua stepped back, and summoned her keyblade, the Mystic Heart. "You might want to stand back." Her keyblade glowed with bright light, and the tree floated into the air. Aqua sliced her keyblade hard to the right, and the tree went flying away. With that done, there was nothing more in the path.

"Are you going to teach me that?" Kairi asked.

"Maybe," Aqua said. She dismissed her keyblade. "It's not just going to be spells that I'll be teaching you. More like new ways to use the magic you already know. Fire shields, ice armor, and the like." And light magic, but Aqua couldn't explain that just yet.

The trees vanished, and they came upon a huge mansion, with a locked gate in front. Aqua pulled a key from her pocket and stood up on her tiptoes to unlock the gate. It clicked open, and Aqua replaced the key. "Not even a keyblade can open that lock. This is the only copy of the key in existence."

She pushed the gate open. Kairi followed her into the mansion itself. It was a bit dusty, actually it was really dusty. "Who lived here?"

"Don't know," Aqua said. "It was abandoned ages ago. Give me a second." She breathed in deeply, and pushed out hard with both hands. The dust rose from the tables, cabinets, and otherwise around the room, and vanished. "Perfect." She looked over at Kairi. "You've got some other clothes in that backpack, right? Something less conspicuous than all-black armor?" Kairi nodded quickly. "Good. Let's see, you can go up the stairs on the left, swing around and sleep in the last door down."

Kairi did just as Aqua said, and Aqua went to the room she had set up for herself, right next to the library, of course. It was just as she had left it. Aqua opened up the very bottom drawer, and pulled out her favorite outfit(1). She got in on quickly, and examined herself in the mirror. Just as good as the day she first bought it. The memory was clear as day.

"_Well, what do you guys think?" Aqua said, turning around._

_Ven examined her. "I give it two thumbs up!" he said cheerfully._

"_Terra?"_

_He nodded. "It's perfect for you."_

"_But, I'm sort of worried about the sash," she said, fingering the fabric tied around her waist, almost reaching the floor. "What if it gets in my way while I fight?"_

_Terra sighed. "Come on, imagine it. You, flying in, keyblade flashing, the sash flying behind you! You'd be amazing!"_

_She laughed. "Okay, I think I'll do it. Thanks, you guys rock."_

A tear fell down Aqua's cheek. "How could it all go so wrong?" she asked her reflection. She wiped away the tear, and left her room.

* * *

_(1) It's her outfit from Birth By Sleep, in other words. I'm lazy that way, and besides, nothing else really fits her, I don't think._


	6. Kairi: A Princess

**Kairi: A Princess**

In the courtyard behind the mansion, was a pathway hidden in the foliage. The path was defined enough, and you could see where people had stepped before. Not very many branches were in the way, but plenty reached above them, preventing much light from getting through. The path finally widened out, and the trees vanished.

They emerged in a clearing. The sun shined brightly overhead, and the grass was soft. Kairi thought it was beautiful, nothing like what there was in Radiant Garden. Her hometown was a mess, and the gardens that the city had been originally named for were nothing but more buildings. It was rather depressing, compared to places like Twilight Town and Destiny Islands.

"Sit," Aqua instructed. Kairi sat down cross-legged on the grass. Aqua sat across from her. "There's some things you need to know about, Kairi. In this universe, there are seven maidens of the purest heart. We call them, the Princesses of Heart. I am one, as are you."(1)

Kairi's eyes widened. "Me? A, princess?"

Aqua held up a finger. "A Princess of Heart. While you do have royal ancestry--actually, I believe that your paternal grandfather was the younger brother of King Drey, Ansem's father--you are not a true princess, an heir to the throne."

"But, hasn't King Ansem not produced an heir?"

"Not yet. And if he doesn't before his death, then you will be the sole heir. But we're not talking about the Princess of Radiant Garden. We are talking about the Princesses of Heart." Aqua took a deep breath. "Now, a common trait amongst the princesses is a natural aptitude for magic. The ability to use magic without the assistance of objects that most people need to perform magic. However, this doesn't automatically make you a princess. There are plenty of people who have a natural ability for magic. However, there is a certain type of magic that only the Princesses of Heart can use. Light magic." Aqua stood up, and held out her hand. "Light!" A flash of light shot from her palm and into the trees. "That was just a small demonstration. Light magic has many uses, blasts of light the least of them. It can be used offensively, defensively, as a distraction, and for healing. I'm going to teach you the basics of it, Kairi. First of all . . ."

The magic lesson went on for most of the rest of the day. At the end of it, Kairi could use extremely basic techniques. "Is it supposed to be this hard?" Kairi asked. "I can barely make an orb, and what use would that be in a fight?"

Aqua slapped her forehead. "Kairi, that orb is of pure light. Heartless are the manifestation of darkness in our hearts. If you got good enough, the heartless wouldn't stand a chance against you."

Kairi breathed heavily. "Okay, but can we please stop? I'm exhausted, and I don't think I could do much more magic."

Aqua nodded. "You can do whatever you like, as long as you don't get into trouble for it. Maybe go see the town, and tomorrow we won't do so much magic practice, just teaching." She cast a cure spell on Kairi, restoring her energy. Kairi bowed, and went back through the path, through the mansion, and back into the town.

Tram Common didn't have a lot of people in it, but a few people were over by the shops. There was a little guy that Kairi immediately recognized to be in the attire of a black mage. Blue coat, large hat, and yellow eyes looking out at you. It was rather creepy, but probably just because Kairi hadn't seen very many traditional black mages before.

The black mage looked up at her. "Oh! Hi! I've never seen you before. Who are you?"

"I'm Kairi Hikari," she said, bending down to look him in the eyes. "And you?"

"Vivi Ornutia," he replied. "Where are you from?"

"Radiant Garden," Kairi said before she could stop herself. Vivi cocked his head in curiosity. It made sense. After all, while most citizens of the Garden wished they could move to a better place, almost nobody could afford to do so, and even fewer were approved to move. Kairi quickly thought up an explanation. "My father helped out a Warder, and was able to bypass some of the approval steps."

Vivi thought about it for a second, and must have thought it made sense. "I'll see you later, Kairi," he said, and walked off. Kairi sighed in relief.

She stood up, and dug through the pocket of her dress. She came up with 5000 munny and a Sardonyx Ring. In other words, not much. The only way to get any kind of good armor was synthesis. She checked her other pocket, and only came up with a few base element shards, and a mythril stone. Kairi doubted that she could synthesize anything good from that. Regardless, she sold the ring to the accessory shop owner, and stepped over to the moogle.

"Hey, kupo!" the moogle greeted. "You want to synthesize, kupo?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you could tell me how to get synthesis materials. I know that heartless will sometimes leave them behind after being destroyed, but are there any less dangerous methods?"

The moogle thought for a minute. "Let's see, kupo. You can find them on beaches, or in fields, and you can get them as prizes for tournaments, kupo."

"Don't forget about Genji Cave." Kairi turned around to see a trio of kids her age. The speaker was a blond-haired boy with camo pants on. Beside him was a girl with brown hair and an orange shirt, and a boy with black hair who was rather large.

"What's Genji Cave?" Kairi asked.

"It's a cave down on the south end of town," the boy said. "Legend has it that a group of ninjas once used it as their hiding spot, stowing away their treasure there."

"Have you actually found anything there, kupo?" the moogle asked skeptically.

"No, duh. We're not allowed to go there, and anyways, it's infested with heartless," he said. He added under his breath "Like heartless can beat us." He turned to Kairi. "Name's Hayner."

"Pence," the large boy said.

"Olette," the girl chimed.

"Kairi, Kairi Hikari," she said, shaking hands with each of them. "Why don't you go to Genji Cave? Are Warders guarding it?"

"Nah," Hayner said. "Those guys couldn't care less about what happens to a few teenagers." It took all of Kairi's self-control not to protest that statement. "It's just . . . my older brother. He's overprotective of me."

"You don't have an older brother, do you?" Hayner really wasn't a good liar.

"Oh, whatever! I mean, if you could fight, then we might have a different story. Can you fight?" Kairi nodded. "Oh. Uh, I mean, uh . . ." He quickly changed the subject. "You wanna go get some ice cream with us?"

---

Ten minutes later, the four of them were sitting on top of the Clock Tower at the train station, eating Sea-Salt Ice Cream. Kairi had been a bit hazardous at first, but soon found that it was really good. "It's salty, but sweet."

"Nobody can resist it," Olette said. "So I'm curious. What do you fight with?"

"Sword, and I have a natural skill for magic."

"Some people have all the luck," Hayner said. He sighed. "Well, I'm a Warrior, just a sword for me."

"A whip," Olette said. "And I'm the local White Mage." She patted her belt, where there was a few magic charms.

Pence dug through his pocket, and pulled out a small metal box. "Murb, wake up!" The box shifted its parts around, forming a small robot. "Meet Murb. Short for Multiple-Use-Robotic-Buddy. He can float around and shoot energy blasts, make a shield, act as a spy, or attach to my wrist so I can use him to fire at enemies more effectively." He spoke to Murb again. "Murb, deactivate." The little robot shifted back into the box again. Pence replaced it in his pocket. "Built him myself," he said proudly.

"For real?" Kairi said. "That's amazing." She was jolted by a vibration in her pocket. "Excuse me a second." She pulled her phone out of her pocket. A text message from Aqua. "Might want to come back, getting up early 2-tomorrow." Kairi sighed. "I gotta go. It was nice meeting you guys."

"We're here every evening," Olette said. "And we're usually around town somewhere, burning time." Kairi smiled. Despite the fact that she had just met them that afternoon, she felt like Hayner, Pence, and Olette were starting to become her friends.

---

Kairi yawned deeply. When Aqua said they were waking up early, she wasn't kidding. It was four in the morning, and the sun was two hours from coming up. Instead of in the clearing, they were at the beach. The waves pounded gently against the shore.

"Today, we're not looking specifically at magic," Aqua said. She had a lantern set down on the sand beside her. "It's a form of magic, but not a spell. As you already know, most people require items of some sort to perform magic. The most common method is through charms, and is the only sort of magical item entrusted to 4th, 3rd, and 2nd ranks, with few exceptions. However, there's another big method. This is called materia. It's far more powerful than charms, but also far more rare."

"So what's materia made from?" Kairi asked.

"Crystallized mako. Basically, mako can be described as the blood of the worlds. It flows through the world's hearts, carrying life through them, and through the air around us. Eventually, mako flows to Kingdom Hearts, carrying knowledge of the worlds to the heart of all worlds. This process of movement of the energy is called the Lifestream. Normally, mako flows uninterrupted, but sometimes cracks are formed, and mako flows out. The mako then condenses into materia."(2)

Kairi nodded slowly. "I think I've heard of mako before. Can't people get really badly poisoned by it?"

Aqua laughed. "You're referring to mako poisoning. The name is actually misleading. Sometimes, if somebody is exposed to too much mako, it can cause them to gradually lose their minds. Too long, and you could go completely insane. But it's not truly poisonous." Aqua grabbed her lantern and stood up. "Now, we'll be going after materia. There's one fissure in this world, where materia is formed. Most worlds, it doesn't happen, but some worlds are lucky to have one. This world's fissure is somewhere out there." She gestured out to the ocean. "I know approximately where it is, but I haven't actually gone there myself." She pulled a charm from her pocket. "Pre-prepared spell, so you don't have to waste time casting one," she explained. She held it up in the air, and sparks of magic danced over them.

The effect was immediate. Kairi felt like she had to get into the water, fast! She could still breathe air, but it felt dry, stuffy. She kicked off her shoes and dove into the waves, followed by Aqua.

The water felt perfect. Kairi could breathe underwater like she was still in the air. An itching feel went through her, and before her eyes, webbing grew between her fingers. Her feet became more like fins than anything. "This is amazing," Kairi said. Rather, she tried to, but it came out as a series of bubbles. She looked around--the spell let her see more clearly underwater--and saw Aqua gesturing for her to follow.

Kairi swam after Aqua, through the ocean, deeper and deeper. Aqua's lantern must have been magic, because it not only kept burning but cast a bright light over everything. Fish swam by, big eyes examining them before swimming away again.

Eventually, Kairi could see smaller lights poking out from the darkness, like stars. Kairi swam ahead, and could see a small crack in the ground in a crater. In the crater as well were a dozen small orbs of all different colors. Kairi counted five green, two blue, four yellow, and a purple. Aqua swam over, and her eyes widened. She must have not known that there would be that many.

Aqua hooked the lantern to her waist, and picked up a few of the materia, and pocketed them. Kairi did the same, and they headed back to the beach.

When they reached the surface, the spell broke. Kairi's hands and feet returned to normal. She could breathe normally again.

"I didn't realize there would be that many," Aqua said, confirming Kairi's theory. "I've gone to retrieve materia a few times before, but there haven't ever been that many before. It must have been a while since anybody's gone out there." She pulled a green materia from her pocket, and examined it closely. "Right. Let's get down to business."

A few minutes later, the pieces of materia were spread over the sand, organized by their color. "The most common type of materia is green materia. It allows spell casting, and can be linked to weapons to power them up." She grabbed one of the materia, seemingly at random. "Through a certain spell, you can determine what spell a materia produces. This one is fire, then there's another fire one, a thunder, a cure, and a reflect." Aqua replaced the materia, and picked up a blue. "Blue materia can be combined with other materia, to power them up." She replaced that one, and grabbed a yellow. "Yellow materia gives knowledge. It's hard to explain it, exactly." Finally, she picked up the sole purple. "Purple materia increases your own abilities. This one can make you faster. The more you fight with materia, the more potent it becomes."

"I think I get it," Kairi said. "So, what do we do with all this?"

Aqua shrugged. "Technically, it's supposed to be collected so all of the Warders can use it. But I think we could keep a few. Take your pick."

Kairi looked over the materia, and took the lightning green materia, the speed materia, and a yellow materia with an unknown ability. Aqua took a yellow and the other blue, and stuffed them into a pocket. From another pocket, she pulled out a cloth bag, and dumped the rest of the materia into it. She pulled the drawstring, and pushed it into her pocket. Strangely, there was no sign at all of the materia being in there. Nothing at all, actually.

When Kairi mentioned this, Aqua laughed. "Infinite space enchantment(3). I'll have to teach you that. In fact, tonight I'll do it on your outfit.

"That concludes our lesson for today, considering I can't really think of anything else to do. Just keep your phone on, and you can do whatever you want to do for the rest of the day."

Kairi stood up. "Thank you, Aqua." As Kairi walked back to the train station, she thought about what she had learned in just two days. Then Sora crossed her mind. She hoped he was okay.

* * *

_(1) You may be asking how Aqua is a Princess of Heart...Snow White wasn't ever born. Yeah, that's it._

_(2) Obviously, I changed around how mako is formed, and how the Lifestream works, but it's essentially the same._

_(3) Also known as: magic pants, invisible videogame pocket, and hammer space._

_After this, we return to Sora, to Radiant Garden, to see what's changed in this timeline to the world. Not pretty._

_And I guess I should say this now, this is going to have a lot of crossing over with the Final Fantasy games. Not just FFVII, but also VIII, X, and possibly some IX and XIII. Just, yeah..._


	7. Sora: TSUNAMI

**Sora: TSUNAMI**

Sora was really glad that his clothes were comfortable. Since he didn't have much money, and he wasn't willing to sell any of his magic charms, he was usually sleeping on a bench, using his cloak as a pillow. His limited munny went towards meals, the cheapest possible stuff. Even the cheapest possible was pretty expensive.

That morning, at about nine 'o' clock, Sora woke up from a restless night's sleep. He checked everything, from charms to sword. Everything was still where he had left it. He stood up, unfolded his cloak, and slipped it on. He started walking down the road, keeping his eyes straight forward. It had been pretty easy for him to figure out how not to draw attention to himself. Don't stare at people, don't start talking to them. But that didn't mean it was easy. It just wasn't in Sora's nature to be a loner.

He stopped at a small stand, where a man was selling fruit. Fifty munny for an apple, and a hundred munny for a small loaf of bread. It would have to do. Sora dug out the munny, and gave it to the vendor. "Thank you," the man said, and gave Sora his breakfast.

"Thanks yourself," Sora replied. As he walked, he ate the apple, and quickly polished it off. He tossed the core into a trash can, and pulled a piece of his bread off and stuffed it into his mouth. It was alright, slightly dry, but he wasn't going to complain.

Somebody pulled on the back of his cloak. Sora turned around, and saw a little boy, who couldn't be much older than seven. He looked like he was starving to death.

"`Scuse me, but have you seen a girl? About my age?" he asked.

"Sorry," Sora said, "I haven't." He looked at his loaf of bread, and tore off half of it. "But when you find her, the two of you can share this."

The boy's eyes widened. "Th-th-thank you!" he stuttered. He took the bread, and ran down the street to look for the girl he had mentioned.

Sora smiled. "You're welcome." He walked down the street, whistling a tune. He polished off the rest of his bread, and brushed the crumbs off of his hands. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. No new messages. Again. He replaced it, and kept his hands in his pockets. "It's cool of them to give me this mission and all," he said under his breath, "but how am I supposed to find TSUNAMI?"

A shadow darted under his feet. It stopped in front of him, and rose out of the ground. Its golden eyes stood out against its entirely black body. It hissed angrily.

A woman screamed, and Sora looked around. Heartless, everywhere! Sora whipped Nakage from its scabbard. He sliced through the shadow that had appeared in front of him. It vanished in a puff of black smoke, its captured heart rising into the air. He went after more heartless, destroying each one easily.

Five heartless surrounded him, and were about to leap at him. "Might as well try the new one," he said, and placed his hand on the earth-element charm. He grabbed the hilt of his sword with both hands, and stabbed the tip into the ground. "Quake!" Cracks spread out from the point of impact, and every heartless in the immediate area was destroyed by the high-level spell.

The spell sucked a lot out of Sora, and he gasped for breath. Heartless started to advance closer on him. He was ready to get back into it, when he spotted one heartless off in a corner, closing in on somebody. "Help! Please!"

Sora got himself past the heartless and sliced through the single Neoshadow. It was a little girl, no older than six. For a moment, Sora considered the idea that this was the girl that boy had been looking for, but he quickly shoved that thought aside. "What are you doing here?"

"I was walking around the town, and then the heartless attacked me," she said. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet." There were still plenty of heartless left. He turned around, and crouched down. "Wrap your arms around my neck, and your legs around my waist, and hold on tightly. I promise I won't let anything get you." She did as he said, and he stood up. He wielded Nakage with one hand, and kept his other hand on the girl's hand reassuringly.

"Blizzaga!" A flurry of ice blasted from the end of his sword, cutting through the heartless. Before, he had been fighting technically, thinking about the weaknesses of the heartless. Now, he was fighting for somebody, making sure that the girl was safe, and that made him fight three times as hard.

Sora dashed forward one last time, and the point of Nakage skewered five heartless. Their hearts were released into the air. He carefully sheathed his sword. "They're gone," he said. "Now, where do you live? I'm sure that your parents are worried sick."

She shook her head. "I only have a dad. But I have a big family. I'm Marlene."

"Sora," he replied. "Okay, then where does your dad live?"

"He's at a place called 7th Heaven," Marlene said. "It's on seventh street."

"Got it," Sora said. He made sure that Marlene wouldn't fall while he was walking--though after fighting with her on his back, it wasn't likely to happen--then started through the streets again. The people around were already back to normal, like nothing had happened. "Are heartless attacks really that common around here?"

Marlene nodded. "It's sad. All these people, living down here. Then there's all those people, who get to live in those big houses in the sky." Sora looked up, and saw the plates, where he knew that the few rich people of Radiant Garden lived. Most of them had made a name for themselves in the city, so they wouldn't leave to go to another world.

"Do you know what's it's like up there, Marlene?"

"I heard that a bunch of people there are really happy," she said wistfully. "They don't have to worry about heartless. And they get to see the sky all the time."

Sora nodded. The way that the plates were created, they overshadowed most of lower Radiant Garden. You could go your entire life without seeing the sky above, if you lived far enough inside the city. "That's so sad." He turned from Gaia Road to 7th Street. "Which way from here." She told him to go left, and he did so. A half block down, was a place with a sign in front of it that said "Seventh Heaven." He realized that it was a bar, and wondered what Marlene's father was like. "Here we are."

He stepped inside, and looked around a little. At the counter was a woman, obviously the barkeep. She smiled, but her eyes grew wide when she saw Marlene. She jumped over the bar, and hugged Marlene tightly.

"Denzel was going crazy. He just showed up here a few minutes ago, saying that he couldn't find you," she said. She looked up at Sora. "Who are you?"

"He's Sora," Marlene piped up. "He saved me from heartless, Tifa."

Tifa's mouth dropped open. "Heartless? You were attacked by heartless?" Marlene nodded. "Then, thank you, Sora. I've never seen you around these parts."

"I just came here," he said. "I'm new around town. I'm handy with a sword, the heartless appeared. Anybody would have done the same thing."

"Still," Tifa said, "that was nice of you, to bring Marlene back here yourself. So what's your position?"

"Sorry?"

"You know, what do you think of all this?"

"Uh, I guess that I think it's bad here. I mean, with all of the heartless showing up, and people hardly noticing after it happens. Then there's the fact that there's no Warders anywhere, which doesn't make sense to me. Aren't they supposed to be protecting people?"

Tifa sighed. "Maybe that's what they're supposed to do, but they certainly don't do it, at least not here." She crossed her arms, and her face showed deep thought. "Can you wait here for a second?" Sora nodded. Tifa went back through the bar, and up a set of stairs behind it.

From overhead, Sora heard a foot pound on the floor, and somebody yell, slightly muffled "You're being stupid, Squall!!! Give him a chance!!!" Something in him told him that this might be the chance he had been waiting for.

Tifa came back down the stairs. Another guy came down behind her, with a scar going diagonally across the bridge of his nose. He had a gunblade hooked to his waist. The guy examined Sora. "So, you're the kid that beat up those heartless on 14th Street. Humph. How old are you?"

"Fifteen," Sora said. "But I'm also a good swordsman, and a fair mage."

The guy didn't look impressed. Tifa sighed in exasperation. "C'mon, Squall! We could always use more recruits, am I right?"

"The name's Leon!" he said roughly. "And don't go around yelling it. Never know who's listening in."

"The bar's almost empty. The only people in here are the three of us and Marlene." A cough came from the corner. "Sorry, Vince. And Vincent. Even Marlene's left, now."

Faster than Sora could blink, another man who he presumed to be Vincent got between him and Leon. He was clothed in a red cloak, and Sora couldn't help but notice the gun holster strapped to Vincent's right leg. Vincent stared straight into Sora's eyes. For a minute, neither said anything.

Vincent broke eye contact, and returned to his place in the corner of the bar.

"Is he supposed to scare me?" Sora asked.

Tifa shrugged. "Better afraid than dead." Sora's eyes widened. Tifa didn't seem to notice, and turned back to Leon. "Vincent didn't kill him, so that must mean he's okay."

"Fine," Leon said after a moment of hesitation. "Okay, Sora. You know what TSUNAMI is, right?" Sora nodded, feeling like his heart had skipped a beat. "We're TSUNAMI, of Radiant Garden. Us, and some others. Tifa thinks you might have what it takes to join us."

"I'd be honored," Sora said.

"There's more to it than honor. It's knowing your limit, and us being able to trust that if you're captured, you won't spill the beans even if you're tortured within an inch of your life. If it weren't for us, heartless would be running rampant in Radiant Garden, and people would always be getting their hearts stolen. Then, the people would starve, because it's thanks to us that many people are able to get enough food to eat." Sora recalled the things he had heard about food supply trucks getting raided. So that's where it went. "Is that clear?"

Sora swallowed, and nodded. "Crystal."

"Good," Leon said. "There's a meeting today at noon. You'll meet everybody else--that is, everybody left then." He returned to the room upstairs, while Tifa went back behind the counter.

Sora sat down at a table by himself, and sighed. He was on his way.

---

There weren't as many people in TSUNAMI as Sora thought. There was Leon, Tifa, and Vincent, then there was a guy with hair that looked like a chocobo's named Cloud, a slightly-hyperactive ninja, Yuffie, a big guy with a metal hand that transformed into a gun, who was also Marlene's foster father, Barret, and then looking slightly out of place was a blue koala-like thing who most of them called Stitch, and a young woman called Mulan. While that was eight people, Sora expected far more with how big Radiant Garden was.

"Where the hell are the Gullwings?" Barret grunted.

"They're still scouting," Leon replied. "They should be here soon."

Sora turned to Mulan, and tried to strike up a conversation. "Hi, I'm Sora."

"Nice to meet you," she said, but didn't sound very glad.

"Is something wrong?"

She glared at him. "How would you like it if your world was practically destroyed, then you got dumped in the city where happy endings don't exist?"

Sora's confusion must have shown, because Cloud said "Sometimes when there are cross fires between the Warders and the heartless, a lot of damage is done. Sometimes worlds can be left completely uninhabitable. The people of these worlds are taken by gummi ship to another world. The most common one is this world. That's why it's so overpopulated."

"Oh, sorry Mulan, I didn't know," Sora apologized. "Is that what happened to Stitch?"

Mulan nodded. "He and I are in the same boat. I don't have any family left. In my world, the Land of Dragons, family is considered to be the most important thing. My entire family lost their hearts to the heartless." A tear fell down her face. "I only have two things left of my home. The hairpiece my mother gave me, and the sword of my father's." Her hand went to the sword strapped to her waist. "I lost my home less than a month ago."

The door to the secret room under the 7th Heaven burst open. Two girls a little older than Sora ran in. One had black hair and red eyes, and wore all black. The other was blonde, with green eyes, and wore a somewhat-revealing multi-colored outfit.

"Where's Yuna?" Yuffie asked.

The blonde was first to speak up. "We were chased by a Warder, and she stayed behind to hold them off while we ran."

"She's probably been captured by now," the other girl added.

Leon closed his eyes, and sighed. "Another one down." He opened his eyes. "Tifa found a new recruit. Sora, meet Rikku and Paine. They and Yuna make the Gullwings."(1)

"So where're you from?" Paine asked. "Haven't seen you around here. From that sword and your magic charms, it doesn't look like you're from another part of town. You get disowned?"

"Not quite," Sora said. He was glad that he had thought up a story for himself. "My dad is dead and my mom is missing, so I lived with my uncle in Destiny Islands. He was really wealthy, but then he was also a jerk. He hated the fact that he had to care for me, and he didn't love anybody but himself. So about a week ago, I stole this sword, some charms that I had practiced with before, and stowed away on a supply ship to this place."

"Are you even any good with that thing?" Yuffie said. "Or are you just somebody who runs around saying that they can fight but run away at the first sign of danger?"

"He fought off some heartless and saved Marlene earlier today," Tifa said. "I think he could be exactly what we're looking for, Squall."

"That's Leon!" he snapped. He leaned back against a wall. "Besides, I'm still not sure about it. Think about what could go wrong? We need to wait."

"Wait for what?" Sora asked. They acted like they hadn't heard him.

"It's nothin' personal against ye', kid," Barret explained. "You're new, and we gotta know we can trust ye' before you get to know the bigger plans."

"Exactly," Leon said. "Now, the two of you are on scouting duty." He gestured for them to leave.

Barret said something under his breath, and stood up. Sora followed him. They left the meeting room and went up the elevator outside, that led up to the bar. The elevator was disguised as a pinball machine, which Sora thought was pretty clever. How they made that, he didn't know and he wasn't going to ask.

"They just wanted me out of there, didn't they?"

"You're catchin' on fast, kid," Barret said. "But sometimes Leon doesn't think. Puttin' me on scout duty? I stick out like a sore thumb." He held up his gun-arm.

"I could take care of it by myself," Sora offered. "I don't stand out too much, and I don't have any work that could get in my way. Plus, you've got Marlene and Denzel to look after."

"You're a good kid, Sora," Barret said. "But I can't let you do that."

"It's no problem for me, really," Sora insisted. "I mean, going around the town, watching out for big groups of heartless, right? If they show up, I get the message out to the others. I do that until tomorrow's meeting."

Barret laughed. "I guess I can't stop you. Thanks. I think you're gonna be a big help to TSUNAMI."

* * *

_(1) Yeah, the Gullwings are human._

_Yeah, there's a lot of Final Fantasy characters in this. Especially ones from VII. But there will be others, as I said before._

_So, Sora makes it into TSUNAMI. No arguments, no tests. One thing hasn't changed in the new timeline, and it's that Sora has a strange sort of charm about him, that lets many people trust him...even when he shouldn't be trusted._


	8. Riku: Inner Strength

**Riku: Inner Strength**

Soul Eater ripped through three practice dummies. Riku jumped into the air, and aimed downward. A spear of energy blasted through the final dummy. He landed perfectly, and dismissed his keyblade. Parts of targets and dummies were scattered all over the floor. It had taken him less than three minutes to destroy them all, and he hadn't broken a sweat.

"I need a sparring partner," Riku said. Since Sora had gotten sent on that mission, and Kairi had gone for training, he was pretty much on his own on Alpha. He didn't even think Sora should be on a mission already, especially one that was so important. Riku thought that the chances that Sora would complete it successfully were pretty low. And then Kairi's description of her training with Commander Aqua was so vague.

An image of the sword Sora had had when he had left came unbidden into Riku's mind. The spiky-haired boy had said that its name was Nakage, but said nothing beyond that. With nothing else to do, Riku headed to the library to look it up, see if he could find anything on it.

He checked over the shelves. While many books were uploaded into a digital system, some information was kept in a book format. Things like magic spells, and the like. That was done just in case somebody somehow managed to hack the system. Riku had already searched the mainframe, but came up with nothing. So he went to the books.

Riku's hand skimmed the shelf, and found one on old swords. He carefully pulled it off the shelf, and looked through the index. "Page 247," he murmured. He flipped to the page. "Nakage -- Storm Rider." His eyes widened. "Nakage is a sword of a long and bloody history. It was created by a sorceress and smith working together, and went through the hands of many swordsmen and women. But the most famous, and the last known wielder, was the Master of the Keyblade from the Realm of Light, Master Kaji. He wielded this blade before gaining the keyblade." Riku let out a deep breath. "I can't believe that Sora's got Kaji's sword. It's impossible."

But he checked a picture of Nakage on the facing page, and saw the exact same sword Sora had. The scratch was even in the exact same place. The pommel of Nakage caught Riku's eye. If he wasn't mistaken, there was a gem of some sort there. A summon gem. "So Sora's got a summon now. I'll have to remember that."

He replaced the book on the shelf, and pulled his own summon gem from his pocket. Flames swirled in the black. He had actually never gotten the chance to use it, and didn't know what beast it summoned. He just found it on one of his missions. According to Master Leo, summon gems were extremely rare. They weren't just given, but had to be earned, most times through defeating whatever beast it was that was summoned through it.

Riku went to the back of the library, where a few chairs were set up. He sat down, and looked into the gem. He found himself entranced, not looking away from the gem at all. His surroundings blurred around him. He could feel himself falling, deeper and deeper.

---

Riku found himself laying not on the floor of the library, but on some sort of stained-glass platform. He stood up, and examined the picture. It was of a woman with golden-blonde hair, and lips bright red. She was dressed in a long purple gown. She had a rose clutched to her chest. Her eyes were closed. Framing her head were three silhouettes of fairy-like beings.

"Where the heck am I?" he asked himself. His voice seemed to echo continually.

_A good question, but difficult to answer,_ said a voice from nowhere. _Neither here nor there. Somewhere in-between._

"What's with the riddles?"

_Good point. Let's just say that you are here to be tested._

"Tested on what?"

_You obtained that summon gem, without proving that you were ever worthy to have it. Now, we shall see if you are worthy to call upon my power. The power of the King of Dragons, Bahamut!_

From the dark clouds above Riku, a huge black dragon flew down. It landed on the platform and made it shake. This was the Summon Beast, Bahamut.

_Little human, can you hope to defeat me? Only one has ever defeated me in battle._

"I can try!" Riku said, and summoned the Soul Eater. The magic charms hooked to the strap around his arm glowed with magical energy.

Bahamut leapt into the air, and swatted Riku high into the air. A burst of fire nearly incinerated him. Riku twisted around, and shot an energy beam at Bahamut. The attack did almost nothing to him. Riku managed to land without killing himself.

"Okay, look for weaknesses, avoid positions where his strengths are highest," Riku said to himself. He jumped to avoid a shockwave. "Forget it. Can't think. React." He drew on his Wind Element Charm, and boosted himself into the air. When Bahamut reached for him, Riku didn't try to avoid it but instead used the dragon's big arms as a method to get up closer to his face. Riku stabbed Soul Eater into Bahamut's eye. The beast howled in pain, and shook Riku off.

Without skipping a beat, Riku got himself to the other side of Bahamut, and climbed up the spikes on his back. Bahamut wasn't able to get Riku off. Riku tried slashing Bahamut's shoulder, but his keyblade did almost no damage, practically bouncing off the hard scales.

The slash put Riku off balance, and he fell again. "Okay, don't go for the hard back and head scales." A shock wave caught Riku by surprise, and he was sent skidding to the other side of the platform.

_Face my greatest power!_ Bahamut roared. He backed up as far as he could, slammed his forefeet down on the ground to keep himself steady, and started to charge up energy.

"That doesn't look good," Riku said to himself. Thinking quickly, he stabbed Soul Eater into the platform as far as it would go. Bahamut released the energy in one big Mega Flare. The scorching flames burned Riku. But he barely moved, thanks to the death grip on his keyblade's handle. When the torrent finally stopped, he was tired, sore, but still standing. Bahamut was breathing heavily. "That attack must take a lot out of him."

Riku took advantage of Bahamut's momentary weakness, and drew upon all the magic in his system. He channeled it into his keyblade, and charged at Bahamut. A new facet of magic opened up in his mind. "ULTIMA!!!" he roared.

The explosion caused by the spell was so great, it rocked the platform. Bahamut roared in pain, before collapsing to the ground.

_Never once have I experienced such a spell. You must be a great warrior to be able to use such magic._

"Right, great, can we get on with it?" The Ultima had put a great amount of mental strain on him. He was probably going to have a crippling headache later.

_Of course. Know that in a time of great need, you have permission to call upon my strength._

---

Riku opened his eyes, and he was back in the library. The summon gem burned hot in his palm. "Was that real, or a dream?" he asked himself. "One way to check."

He went to the bookshelf of magic spells, and checked one. "Ultima. The most powerful of combative spells, black or white. A fusion of many elements." He slammed the book shut. "So that was real." He replaced the book on the shelf. "And now, I've got nothing to do."

After grabbing one of the new mysteries, Riku headed back to his room. He read the book quietly, taking in all of the clues. He liked this series, because while it was a regular story, it gave you the chance to solve the mystery yourself as well. Sometimes he got it, other times he missed entirely. Most of the stories took place in Radiant Garden, but some were in other worlds.

"The maid," he murmured. "The maid said that she was hit from behind, but she was found laying on her back. She would have fallen forward." He kept on reading, and his suspicion was confirmed. The maid stole the vase, hoping to sell it.

_We're not gonna be just a part of the games, we're not gonna be just the victims. They're taking our dreams and they tear them apart, 'till everyone's the same._ Riku grabbed his phone and flipped it open. "Yeah?" He sat up straighter. "Hey, dude! How're you doing?" He was silent for a second. "Seriously? You made it in? Those guys must be stupider than we thought." Riku winced. "All I'm saying is--right, right. Okay, good luck, Sora." His eyes widened. "Uh, right, about that, Kairi's sort of training right now. With Commander Aqua." Another pause. "In Twilight Town." He sighed in exasperation. "Okay, I'll talk to her." He snapped his phone shut.

"What's with him and Kairi?" Riku asked himself. "He's obsessed with her." He hit the speed-dial 3 for Kairi, and put the phone up to his ear. It rang six times, then went to the voicemail.

"_Hey, it's Kairi. I'm busy, so leave a message after the beep._"

"Hey, Kai," Riku started. "Hope training's going okay for you. Sora called, his mission's going well. It's dull around here, as always. Talk to you later." He ended his message there.

He checked the clock. 5:00, dinner time. Riku stood up and left his room. He'd return the library book later. For now, he had to get some food in him.

Riku groaned when he saw the dinner. Sloppy Joes, emphasis on Sloppy. They were disgusting, as far as he was concerned, and he hated whenever it was the meal. He grabbed an apple, a baggie of crackers, and a juice box. He knew that he'd be hungry tonight, but he just couldn't eat Sloppy Joes.

In less than five minutes, he had finished up his dinner. He left the cafeteria, since it was just full of a ton of kids. "Kingdom Hearts(1), what morons. Thinking that they've got it so great. Maybe it'd be better if the food wasn't so disgusting, it wouldn't be so bad."

"I can agree with that." Riku stopped, and looked around. The source was a man that Riku had seen a few times before, but not very often. He had a bag of metal parts of some sort in his hand. Riku racked his mind for the name, but couldn't recall it. "Reeve Tuesti," the man said. He didn't sound surprised that Riku didn't know what his name was. "Head of Robotic Research." That explained the parts.

"Riku Samurai(2), 2nd Rank," Riku said. He held out his hand, and Reeve shook it. "So you're an engineer?"

Reeve shook his head. "I used to have ideas of being an architect. However, after I was discovered to have certain . . . abilities, I was put in charge of this section, despite the fact that I know almost nothing about robots." He took a breath. "Would you care to come eat with me? I don't care much for Sloppy Joes either."

"Well . . ." Riku said hesitantly.

"I have hotdogs," Reeve offered.

"I guess I could," Riku replied.

Ten minutes later, they were in the main robotics lab, with Riku in the middle of his third hotdog and Reeve tinkering with a robotic skeleton.

"So, what do you do, exactly? What's your main project?"

"Currently, I'm working on a method of creating a more durable endoskeleton, that will allow a robot to assist more on missions," Reeve explained. "That way, it would be more mobile. Right now, most androids are limited in their capabilities. They can't climb very well, or crawl, or perform precise movements like writing." A few sparks flew out of the device, and Reeve swore. "This will never work. Even if I could do it, I would get overwhelmed if I tried to work with it directly."

"What d'you mean?" Riku asked.

"Nothing, nothing," Reeve said. "It doesn't matter."

A slight beep came from Riku's phone. He pulled it from his pocket, expecting to see a reply text from Kairi. "Master Leo wants me in his office," Riku said, surprised.

Reeve raised his eyebrows. "I can only imagine why." He placed down his tools. "Well, you are always welcome to come by here when whatever meal we're having is less than satisfactory. I'm always here."

"Thanks," Riku replied. He turned, and left the lab.

---

Master Leo tapped his fingers on the desktop. "What are we going to do with you, Riku?"

"What do you mean, sir?" Riku asked. He didn't think he had done anything wrong.

"You're not in trouble," Master Leo said. "I'm just referring to the fact that your friends are both away from here, and you're on your own. Kairi is training, and then Sora is on that mission of his."

Before he lost his nerve, Riku asked "Why was he sent on that mission, instead of a higher-ranked Warder? He's a new 3rd Rank, and I don't think he'll last long."

"Sora is special," Master Leo said simply. "But, we are all special, in some way, Riku. You are powerful. Your heart is stronger than anybody else's that I have ever met. There is untapped potential within you, Riku. I could help you unlock that potential."

Riku translated that as that Master Leo was going to help him become strong. Extremely strong. Maybe even enough to get Kairi to see him. "What did you have in mind?"

* * *

_(1) This is like the equivalent of "Oh, God" for us in the real world._

_(2) Don't question the last name, please. It was the only idea I had._

_Just wanted to say that Master Leo is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes, who also voiced Luxord in KHII. But the two are completely unrelated, trust me. I just like the voice actor._


	9. Leon: Broken

**Leon: Broken**

It was a couple weeks since Sora had joined TSUNAMI, and he had proved that he was a good fighter, willing to do things that seemed wrong, and most of all, that he could be trusted. Leon actually trusted him, and that was a rare thing. He didn't trust somebody except when they had especially proven themselves, far beyond the point of another person.

It had probably been his best mission yet when Sora had made that disguise and distracted the guards while they raided a supply truck. From that mission, they had gotten food, munny, and even got their hands on some materia.

The only materia that Leon ever used was a Firaga one, for the sake of a ranged attack. The blade of his Revolver had two materia slots, but only used the one. However, Cloud, Tifa, and Yuffie all used materia. The Gullwings did use their Dresspheres, but Yuna had had the Black Mage and White Mage Dresspheres with her when she was captured. That left Rikku and Paine pretty limited, since neither used materia. Mulan used magic charms, fire and healing specifically, and Stitch didn't need magic.

Leon knew that they were in deep trouble. If they weren't careful when they went out, they could end up captured. The Warders didn't know about any of them being members of TSUNAMI, or they would be killed. But they didn't like people running around knowing how to fight. And if they had magic charms, materia, or anything like that, it made it even worse for them. Imprisoned, most likely for life. If you were lucky, you got freed because there was a worse criminal that needed your cell.

That day, three weeks after Sora had joined TSUNAMI, he and Leon were at the Dark Overlook. It was a gaping cliff. Beyond it, far off, was the Warders of Radiant Garden HQ. The upper part of it was the headquarters itself, but starting at the basement floor and going down was the prison.

"That's our next target," Leon said quietly.

"Huh?"

"The prison. That's our target. We need to free the members of TSUNAMI that have been imprisoned."

Sora nodded. "Who's been caught?"

Leon sighed. "Cid Highwind, he was building a gummi ship and ended up getting caught. Yuna, you already know. Aerith Gainsborough, she was caught using her healing abilities."

"How is that so bad?" Sora asked. Leon could understand that. By healing people, Aerith was making less work for the Warders to do.

"She was using magic, and natural magic at that. I don't get it any more than you do. Then there's--" His words caught in his throat. Sora cocked his head curiously. "We weren't the first TSUNAMI in Radiant Garden. Originally, it was three men. This was when there weren't as many heartless around. Their names were Laguna, Kiros, and Ward. I met Laguna once. The three of them were captured, and sent not to the prison here, but in the Gathering Place." Sora winced. The prison at the Gathering Place was the worst of all of them. "Heartless came like crazy. So me and my friends created a new TSUNAMI.

"Eventually, Barret joined, then others came. Cid and Cloud were both part of it, when the day came." Leon's eyes took on a far-off look, like he was watching it happen, instead of describing it. "They were captured. All of them. Zell. Irvine. Quistus. Selphie. Rinoa. I was almost killed, but I got away. But I couldn't help them. I was useless. So I left behind who I was. Not Squall. Leon."

Sora was in shock. "I'm sorry."

"That was three years ago, that it happened. I don't if they're even still alive." He sighed. "I can imagine what Selphie thinks of imprisonment. Her parents came from Destiny Islands, so she got a sense of freedom from them. She probably went close to insane." He breathed heavily.

Leon turned to Sora. "I've wanted to go there for a while, but I think that you're what we've been waiting for, Sora. With your help, we can get in. But not everybody shares mine and Tifa's belief. Paine and Vincent are against it. The big problem is that we don't really know how the jail's set up, and we could wander there, no idea where we're going."

"It's a grid system," Sora answered automatically. Leon raised an eyebrow. "An X, Y, and Z setup. It's like a cube." He pulled a pencil and small pad of paper from his pocket, and doodled something on it. He held it up, and showed it to Leon. The gunblade-wielder examined it closely. It was a cube with three lines going through it, labeled X, Y, and Z. "The most dangerous prisoners--at least in their eyes--are kept in the very center, at the origin.

"Aerith, as a White Mage, would probably be in an outer part. A basic law-breaker like Cid would be in the middle-outer part. Yuna, since she was arrested for the fighting bit, would be somewhere in the inner-middle part. Your friends would probably be somewhere around the same place. The center is reserved for men on death row. I'm talking confirmed members of TSUNAMI, murderers, etc."

Leon's eyebrows knit together. "How do you know about this stuff?"

"It's called the library," Sora said. "I was bored two days ago, looked up some stuff on architecture, and got absorbed in that."

"I'm gonna kill Yuffie," Leon said under his breath. "She was in charge of figuring out as much as she could about the prison, and came up with almost nothing." He sighed. "Do you know if you could make a more detailed version of this?" Sora nodded. "Then do it. We have to get into the prison. If we can even get an approximation of where they'd be, we might be able to convince the others to go for it."

"You got it!" Sora said, smiling widely.

Leon allowed a slight smile to slip through for a moment. It didn't last long. A roar ripped through the air. They spun around, and saw something very big back in the town. "Heartless!"

Sora was already running for the city. Leon was close behind him. As he ran, he pulled out his phone. "Barret! Get moving! There's a huge heartless flying overhead! We're gonna need a ton of help here!" He snapped it closed.

The heartless was enormous. It had the normal look of a heartless, black with golden eyes. Its wings were connected to its forearms, its legs ended in talons, and its beak was sharp. The best description of it would be a cross between a hawk and a dragon.

Leon knew as soon as he saw it that he wouldn't be much help in a fight like this, so he started helping people get to safety. He could tell that this was going to get ugly, and they couldn't have civilians getting hurt.

"Do you really thing that you could beat me?" The Wyvern taunted. It would have been bad enough as a regular heartless, but it was a sentient heartless. "You shall fall to the darkness, puny boy!"

Sora shot a fire spell at the Wyvern, but it did nothing to it. He gripped the pommel of his sword, glad that he had spoken with the summon beast residing within it. "Courage!" He spun his sword around and stabbed the tip into the ground. Light burst from the crack, and shot into the air. The light formed into a bird, about half the size of the Wyvern but just as strong. Valefor, the Mistress of the Winds. She flew down to Sora, who climbed on her back. Valefor took off, and let out a cry. She flew high over the Wyvern, and dove down, clawing the heartless in the back. She swooped out and under the Wyvern, and Sora stuck his sword up, cutting through its underside.

Valefor flew higher into the air, just above the Wyvern. She began charging energy, and her neck arched back. Sora held his sword in the air. "For the Garden!" he roared. Bursts of energy came from Valefor, and nailed the Wyvern hard. It got knocked back a bit, then charged at Valefor. Its claws hit her, and she fell to the ground. Sora jumped off of her as she began to fade. "Nice job," he said. Valefor dissolved into orbs of light, and returned to his summon gem.

The Wyvern, while it had gotten hit a lot, was hardy, and wasn't going down that easily. A storm of bullets hit it in the side. Barret was firing off his gun-arm with relish. From overhead, a red blur appeared, and landed on top of a building. Vincent loaded his gun, and sent many rounds at the Wyvern. Yuffie appeared in a puff of smoke. She ran at a building, ran up it, and kicked off of it. She flew over the Wyvern, and threw her shuriken at it. The edge sliced through its neck, and returned to her. She caught it easily.

Vincent again ran out of bullets. He discarded the old casings, and reloaded it with different bullets. He snapped it closed, and aimed carefully. Didn't want to waste these rounds. He pulled the trigger six times quickly. Eighteen--three shots per trigger pull--direct hits. Each bullet exploded again the Wyvern's side. Barret charged up power in his gun-arm, and a fireball erupted from the end of it, nailing the Wyvern in the stomach. And from the ground, Yuffie spun her shuriken, and a blast of energy hit the entire Wyvern.

"Hey, wait for us!" Rikku and Paine came onto the scene. Rikku drew her dual daggers, and jumped over the Wyvern, scratching it from the skull to the end of its tail. Paine drew her sword, ran, and jumped, stabbing the heartless in the stomach.

Magic traced its way up Rikku, giving her purple leggings, a yellow skirt, and a blue top. Her daggers were replaced with a gun of some sort, with a circle spinning around it. The Gun Mage Dressphere. The Wyvern sent a huge blast of fire at Rikku. She didn't move, but stood her ground. She looked back at the Wyvern, and aimed her gun at it. An identical burst of fire to the one it had used came from the barrel, and scorched its underside.

Paine also used a Dressphere, but a different one. Her clothes became a suit of Japanese armor, and her sword changed. The Samurai Dressphere. She leapt into the air, and slashed the Wyvern right in the face. As she fell, Paine dug around in her pocket, and threw something glittery at the heartless.

A plasma blast came from the end of Stitch's blaster. He had two of them, and shot at the Wyvern a ton, since the blasters didn't have limited ammo. He gave Mulan a boost into the air, who stabbed the heartless in the eye before landing.

Stitch stuck his blasters in the holsters, and from absolutely nowhere he pulled out a chainsaw. He pulled the starter cord, and laughed maniacally as he tore up the Wyvern's wings. A fiery sphere formed around Mulan. She jumped into the air, extremely high, and the fire swam into her sword. She slashed the Wyvern right in the face.

Tifa came from nowhere, and punched and kicked the heartless all over, avoiding its beak coming at her. A materia orb glowed in Cloud's sword, and a Blizzaga spell nailed the Wyvern.

Blue fire swam over Tifa's fist, and she leapt up and got the Wyvern right underneath the chin. Cloud jumped into the air, and came down sword point down. It ripped through the Wyvern's wing.

Without its wing working properly, the Wyvern couldn't fly, and fell to the ground. Leon charged his gunblade, which grew twice as long, glowing with magic. He ran at the Wyvern, and sliced it right through. The heartless screeched in pain, before its head fell to the ground. It faded away. The captured heart floated up before vanishing.

Everybody was breathing heavily. That thing had been no pushover, hitting them many times. Yuffie was the worst off, who had been clawed by the Wyvern in the shoulder. Mulan healed her.

Leon heard the sound of a heavy-duty truck. "We need to get out of here. The Feds are coming." Reluctantly, everybody headed back to base, taking different routes.

Back at HQ, under the 7th Heaven, Tifa had gotten some drinks.

After he finished his own drink, Leon stood up. "You all did really well, guys. That things was hard. It took all of us to take it down. I'm glad to have you all on my team." He cleared his throat. "Now, I know that we just got out of a fight, but there's some things that need to be discussed. Sora, if you will?"

Sora stepped up to the chalkboard behind Leon, and started drawing a more detailed version of his drawing of the jail he had done earlier. It was made up of many cubes, instead of just one. In ten minutes, everybody had finished up their drinks, and Sora was done with the drawing. "The Warder jails are set up systematically. It's a cube, with more dangerous prisoners kept closer to the center, while less dangerous prisoners are further out.

"Mages tend to be further out, since their bars prevents them from being able to cast spells. The same goes for anybody who depends on a weapon, as long as they aren't too strong. Common criminals are also kept on the outside. At least, who they assume to be common criminals.

"As for the guards, security'll get stronger the further in you go. I'm guessing fresh-from-the-space stations on the outer parts, getting more experienced, up until good 2nd Ranks and 1st Ranks on the inner parts.

"Now, for getting in, we'll need some creativity. Air vents. Sewers. Food delivery trucks. The like. Considering what kind of thing this'd be, only some of us should go. Leon?"

Leon took over. "Yuffie and Rikku, you'll both be necessary. Though you'll want your

Thief Dressphere, Rikku." The Gullwing grinned. "Stitch, you can hack into the mainframes, right? If we can find out where they're kept, we'll be able to get in and get out a lot faster. Vincent, I don't think I need to explain." Vincent said nothing. "Sora, you know the most about the layout, at least for now. And I'll be going." Nobody argued with him, as the de facto leader.

"Are we good? Cloud, Tifa, Paine, Barret, Mulan? Sorry, but you're not quite what's needed. The fewer there are, the better off we'll be." None of them denied that they were better off keeping a lookout over the town. "Okay, then you'll want to start preparing. We aren't going to do permanent damage unless it's absolutely necessary. We also don't want anything too loud. That means no grenades, no big bombs, no exploding bullets." Eyes turned to Vincent for a moment.

"I can survive without them," Vincent said dryly.

"It might be a good idea to invest in a silencer," Leon suggested. Vincent dug through his pocket and pulled out a small metal tube pointedly. He raised an eyebrow. "Right. Things like smoke bombs would be useful. Distractions, not destruction. That's what we're looking for." He clapped his hands together. "That's about it. I'll get the message out when its determined when we're doing this. Dismissed."

There was a flurry of movement as everybody stood up so they could get out of the cramped room. Leon went over to Sora. "Thanks. You're the reason we're able to do this."

"No problem," Sora said. Leon noticed that the teenager looked a little uncomfortable.

"Something up?"

"Nah, just a little tired," Sora replied. "I'm headed out of here. See ya, Leon."

Soon, Leon was the only person left in the meeting room. He shook his head. "He's hiding something. I don't know what, and I don't think I want to know." He turned off the light, and left.

* * *

_A/N: So, Sora grows more wary of his roots within the Warders, as TSUNAMI plans a jail break. Leon's past is revealed, as the tension in Sora's heart grows higher. Good and evil, light and darkness, obedience and rebellion, what is right and wrong? Keep an eye out for the next chapter of Kingdom Under Siege, as we return to light and goodness, with Kairi, Aqua, and the gang from Twilight Town._


	10. Kairi: Confession

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

**Kairi: Confession**

As time went by, Kairi learned from Aqua during the day, then went to hang out with Hayner, Pence, and Olette in the evenings. And at the end of the day, before she went back to the mansion, the four of them would have sea salt ice cream on top of the clock tower.

This day, Kairi got away from Aqua earlier than usual, so she headed over to the Usual Spot, thinking nothing of it.

As she drew closer to the entryway, she heard voices. Sure, there was Hayner, Pence, and Olette, but she also heard Vivi Ornutia, the little black mage she had met when she had first come to Twilight Town, and another man, older. After a few seconds, Kairi remembered the man's name. Setzer Gabbiani. Just before she was about to walk inside anyways, she heard Setzer say one word that made her hang back. Warders.

After checking to make sure that nobody was coming, Kairi got close to the fence, and listened to the conversation.

"Heartless have been showing up in Sunset Terrace," Setzer said, "and none of those Warders have bothered to go over there."

"I can take care of them," Vivi offered. "I don't have anything else to do, I can stay on Sunset Hill and destroy them if any come by."

"Thanks, Vivi," Setzer said. "Next thing. I've heard some business about some Warders, staying on the outskirts of town. I don't know what they're doing, but keep your eyes peeled. If any of those guys found out about us, the Twilight Town TSUNAMI would be done for."

Kairi gasped, and cursed herself for doing so. The conversation stopped inside. Kairi's heart beat at a mile a minute. She quickly focused the light around her in a trick Aqua had taught her a few days ago. It could just maybe save her.

Setzer came from the Usual Spot. He looked around, and even looked directly at Kairi. He narrowed his eyes, and returned inside. "Must have just been the wind. Thought I heard somebody."

Kairi walked away slowly, waiting until she was around the corner to release her magic. The light around her bent, and returned to normal. It was a spell that effectively rendered her invisible. But it took a lot of magic, and a lapse in concentration could lead to a shimmer in the air.

After catching her breath, Kairi ran away from there. She could only hope that Aqua would be able to give her some advice.

---

Kairi slowly opened the door to the library. Aqua was looking over the shelves of books. "Aqua?"

The woman looked over. "Kairi, I'm surprised to see you," Aqua said, but pleasantly so. "Is something wrong?"

"I need some advice, but you have to promise me not to mention it to anybody." Aqua looked amused, but swore that she wouldn't tell anybody. "I found out who is in the Twilight Town TSUNAMI. The thing is, a few of the friends I made here are in it. What do I do?"

Aqua sighed. "Have you told these friends of yours that you are a Warder?" Kairi shook her head. "Then you've got three choices here. One, you can report them thus fulfilling your duty to the Warders. Two, you can pretend that none of this ever happened. Or three," Aqua said, turning to Kairi. "Three, you can tell them the truth. That you overheard their meeting, and that you are a Warder. But you don't intend to turn them in, because they are good friends of yours."

"I'm supposed to choose the third one, aren't I?"

"Oh, I don't know about that. I would personally choose the second one. But that could just be one difference between you and I. Depending on what you choose."

---

Later that day, Kairi was at Sunset Terrace with Hayner, Pence, and Olette. She had suggested coming up to Sunset Hill. After persuading Vivi to let her talk to them alone, they sat down.

"I came over to the Usual Spot earlier today," Kairi started with. "I heard you talking with Setzer and Vivi." A look of alarm crossed their faces. "Don't worry, I won't tell anybody about it. But I do have a confession to make myself." Kairi took a deep breath. "I'm a Warder."

Hayner laughed. "Nice one, but there's better jokes."

"I don't think it's a joke," Olette said uncertainly.

"It isn't," Kairi said. "I'm a Warder. I'm one of the low-down scum that make the worlds worse than they are." Hayner snickered, but stopped when he saw the looks from his friends. "And I'm sorry. Not about the fact that I'm a Warder. But that I didn't tell you guys. And I wouldn't have told you, if I hadn't found out about this."

"So you lied," Olette said. "But we did too. Both for good reasons. You didn't want people to be afraid of you, and we didn't want to get in trouble. So, I'm not upset." She looked at Hayner and Pence expectantly.

"Fine," Hayner mumbled.

"It's alright," Pence said. "It's perfectly alright." But there was no feeling behind his words, and the smile on his face was clearly forced. Kairi knew why.

When Pence was a little kid, he had been out with his dad in the town. Heartless had suddenly attacked, and the Warders were nowhere to be seen. Pence's dad had fought them back, giving Pence a chance to run. The Warders had eventually come, but it was too late. He had lost his heart, leaving Pence with only a mother that didn't really care about him. All he had was his machines, and eventually his friends. But no father, the father that had cared about him so much.

"I'm sorry, Pence," Kairi said. "I know that it was the fault of the Warders that you lost your dad."

"You wouldn't have been one yet," Pence said. "You would have been only five at the time, and you're recruited at 9, right? Then for me to blame you would be stupid."

"Thanks, but I still feel a little guilty," Kairi admitted. An idea came to her. "Can your little robot, Murb, hold materia orbs?"

"I guess I could make the adjustment to it, but why would I--" He stopped suddenly, and turned to Kairi. "For real?"

"If you want it," Kairi said, pulling out the magic materia. "It's at the equivalent of Thundara." It had upgraded already, while she had been dueling with Aqua. "At least, that's what the spell is called, but it's more powerful than the Thundara from a charm." She handed it to Pence.

He examined the materia in disbelief. He dug through his pocket, and pulled out Murb and a pocket knife, which held many more tools than just knives. It actually had only one knife. Within a few minutes, there was a spot in the robot for a materia orb, and Pence placed the green orb inside. "Murb, wake up." The little robot reformed. "Use a Thunder spell on that bush." He pointed at a bush, which Murb floated over to and loosed a bolt of lightning at it, causing it to burst into flame.

"Blizzard," Kairi said, pointing at the bush. The ice crystals put out the fire. She put her hand down. "Hey, I just got an idea. Hayner, you know that place you mentioned, Genji Cave? Why don't we try exploring it?"

"Do the words 'infested with heartless' mean anything to you?" Hayner asked incredulously.

"All four of us can fight, right?"

"Yeah, but then there's the fact that it takes two hours of walking to get there," Hayner said. "I don't want to walk two hours."

Kairi thought for a second. "You know that blocked off area, over in Tram Common? It leads to a mansion. That's where I'm staying with my teacher . . ." She faltered for a moment. She cleared her throat. "There's a path behind it, through the woods. I looked at a map of the town, a real map, and it leads straight to an area marked 'Danger: Heartless Infested Cave.' I don't think that there's any other heartless infested caves in Twilight Town. We could get there in less than a half an hour."

Hayner considered it for a moment. "You swear that you got this idea just now, and there aren't any Warders waiting to ambush us there?"

"Swear on the grave of my goldfish, Lucky," Kairi said, holding her right hand over her heart. "He wasn't very lucky."

"Alright," Hayner said. "I need to get my sword, and we can head over there right now. It's not too late, and so what if we don't get home 'till midnight?"

"I'm in," Olette said.

"Hey, I'm not getting left behind," Pence said.

They ran to Hayner's house there in Sunset Terrace, where he grabbed his sword along with a few torches that worked on magic. They went through the Underground Passageways, and came to the opening. Kairi opened it up, and they passed through the forest, to the mansion. She pulled out her copy of the mansion key, and stuck it in the keyhole. After turning it, the key turned to dust in her hand. Precaution, she'd have to get another key from Aqua later.

Kairi went through the front door of the mansion first. "Shush. My…mentor is probably working on something, we shouldn't disturb her. Just give me a second."

Kairi ran up the left side stairs and into her room. Stuff was scattered all over the floor, mostly pencils and paper. There, in the corner gathering dust, was her keyblade. She grabbed it and snapped it to her belt.

She ran back downstairs, and couldn't ignore the glances that they gave her keyblade. "It's just a sword, nothing more than that." She led the way through the back door of the mansion, and they were swallowed up by the forest.

---

The entrance to Genji Cave had a sign, saying "Keep Out" in bright red letters. They walked right past it, and headed into the bowels of the cave. While the first chamber let sunlight in, the second chamber was completely dark.

Hayner lit one of his torches, and it cast its light everywhere. Magic. Gotta love it. He led the way through the cave, at least until they were about ten minutes in, and heartless appeared. Just some little shadows, though, which were dispatched quickly.

"This is weird," Kairi said. "I'd expect there to be more heartless. Am I right?" She shivered. The temperature had dropped since they had gotten in there, even with the torch.

"Yeah," Olette agreed. "There's a weird feeling in here, you know? Like everything is made of glass, and if you touch it, it'll shatter all around."

"Or a rubber band, stretching further and further, about to snap," Pence added.

"Are you poets done?" Hayner asked sarcastically. "This place is weird, I get it. And it's a lot smaller than I imagined." As he said this, the tunnel opened up into a large chamber. Hayner used his torch to light another one, and the flames spread from torch to torch, lighting up the room. There appeared to be some sort of fighting ring in the middle.

Kairi gripped her keyblade tightly, and stepped forward. She went further and further. When both feet were in the ring, a gust of cold wind blew through the room. The wind carried with it snowflakes, despite the fact that it was Spring. The wind whipped around, forming the shape of a person. Ice was created, then shattered apart.

Where the ice had been, a blue-skinned woman now stood. She had an aura about her that said that she was incredibly powerful, and yet, she did not seem malevolent. Her face was calm, framed by light blue hair. She wore only enough clothing to conceal her modesty.

In a voice as smooth as ice, and as soft as snow, she spoke. "I am Shiva, the Ice Queen. Speak thy name, maiden."

"I am Kairi Hikari, Princess of Heart of Radiant Garden," Kairi said.

Shiva looked somewhat interested. "Thou can use that blade of the worlds. The Keyblade. But, it holds not the power of a true keyblade. But potential still is held within thee. Defeat me in battle, and I shall allow thee and thy allies to obtain the treasure held within. I shall also allow thou to call upon my power in battle. I believe it is what humans call a Summon Gem. What doth thou say?"

Kairi thought about it. From her pocket, she pulled out a big leather bracer that Aqua had lent her. She slipped it over her right wrist, and placed her two materia in it. They glowed, awaiting the fight. Kairi drew her keyblade. "I accept your challenge, Lady Shiva."

A barrier went up around the field. Shiva waved her hand through the air, creating a spear of ice. She spun it around, and threw it at Kairi, who avoided it easily. Shiva sent a flurry of ice spears at Kairi, who deflected them with her keyblade. "It appears that you are not one to be underestimated," Shiva noted. "Very well, then." With a flick of her wrist, a thousand ice needles were created, and shot at Kairi.

"Fire!" the Princess shouted. A burst of flames evaporated most of the needles, but some continued onwards and buried themselves in her skin. Kairi pulled them out, and cast a quick cure spell. She willed the yellow materia in her bracer to activate. Immediately, her senses increased. She could see Shiva's aura reflecting her current status. The Ice Queen was, obviously, still full of energy.

Shiva put two fingers up to her mouth, and blew. A stream of freezing wind went at Kairi, who avoided it easily thanks to her senses. A blade of energy shot at her, but she ducked under it and went at Shiva. Kairi managed to get a hit in, before being blown back. Shiva created an orb of ice, and sent it at Kairi. With a snap of her fingers, it exploded apart, with bits of ice catching Kairi in the face.

"Ah!" Kairi gasped in pain. She turned her left palm to face her, and saw that she had a sliver of ice embedded in her hand. Rather than going the same way as the needles, Kairi left the shard in her hand to prevent bleeding.

An aura of light started to surround Kairi, quickly glowing brighter. With one thought, Kairi released the aura, which shot at Shiva, consuming the Ice Queen in its light.

When the light cleared, Shiva's aura was flickering. "You, are indeed, powerful," Shiva gasped. "I only wish, that your life had gone down, a different path." Shiva glowed, then vanished, leaving behind a light blue gemstone. It floated into the air, and in Kairi's outstretched hands, with the ice shard gone already with Shiva, the injury healed. The gem was freezing cold. Kairi placed it into her pocket, and zipped it up.

At the other end of the room, a door appeared in the side of the cavern. Kairi gestured to Hayner, Pence, and Olette. "Let's go!"

Much to their disappointment, the treasure room was nearly empty. There were only a few pieces of armor left behind, along with a sphere of some sort. Olette picked up a white shoulder guard with two materia slots. "You want it, Kairi? It's better than the bracer you have."

Kairi took the guard, and removed her materia from the clunky old bracer. She slipped on the armor, and inserted the materia. The orbs glowed for a moment, before settling. "Thanks, Olette."

Each of them took a piece of armor, leaving only the sphere. Normally, you could play back what was recorded on a sphere, but this one was quite stubborn. "I'll take it," Kairi volunteered. "I'll try searching for a way to restore old spheres." Pence tossed her the sphere, which she pocketed. She checked her cell phone. No messages. Riku was probably training, and Sora must have been busy on his mission, as usual.


	11. Sora: The Prison

**Sora: The Prison**

Sora crept along the ledge. The sewer water was black, and somewhere around two feet deep. In other words, there was no chance in hell he was walking through that stuff, magic or no. And he wasn't the only one who felt that way. Stitch was holding onto his back, with the promise that he wouldn't claw Sora if anything jumped out at them. Rikku was using the Al Bhed style armor of the Alchemist Dressphere to stay dry. And Yuffie was swinging along the bars lining the top of the sewer pipe like monkey bars. Vincent really couldn't care less about getting his clothes dirty, and Leon was wearing tall boots.

"Rana ed ec! Mad'c ku!" Rikku exclaimed in Al Bhed. "That is to say, Here it is! Let's go!" She pointed at a manhole cover with a small ladder coming down from it.

Leon looked over at Vincent, and nodded. Vincent turned into that strange cloud of smoke, and went up through the manhole. A minute later, he removed the manhole cover. "It's clear," he said. Yuffie went up first, followed by Rikku, who quickly changed into her thief Dressphere. Leon gave Sora a boost up, then jumped up himself.

"Alright, we'll split up," Leon said quietly. "Pair up. I'll go with Rikku, Vincent with Yuffie, and Sora stick with Stitch. You two search for a computer. Try to find out where they are, and if you can, unlock their cells." He tossed Sora and Vincent walk-talkies. "Use these in an emergency. Got it?"

Vincent and Yuffie went down one passageway, toward the middle parts. Leon and Rikku headed to the outer parts. Sora and Stitch took another passageway to search for a computer. When they ran into guards, they would avoid them, or knock them out silently if absolutely necessary.

Stitch sniffed, and said something to Sora. In the weeks he had been with TSUNAMI, Sora had learned Stitch's language for the most part, though sometimes it was a little unclear.

"What is it, a computer?" Sora asked quietly.

Stitch nodded. Sora let him off his shoulder, and the Alien Experiment crawled quickly across the ground, and onto a wall. He hit a hidden switch, which produced a keypad. Stitch tore out the wires, and started reconnecting them. There must have been a pattern to it, because a doorway opened up, hidden seamlessly in the wall. Stitch rolled into the room, which must have been the control room for this section.

With a few taps on the keyboard and a few severed wires, Stitch had gotten past the password protection, and was in. Sora kneeled down next to him. He pulled out the walkie-talkie, and pressed the button. "Leon," he whispered. "We're in, over_._"

"Great, can you give me the cell numbers?" he replied.

"Wait just a second."

Stitch brought up a prisoner database. Every prisoner, with basic statistics, threat level, and cell number logged in. "I don't think we can remotely unlock the cells. But Yuffie and Rikku should be able to take care of the locks." He typed in the first name he knew. Aerith Gainsborough. "Alright, Aerith, female, brown hair, green eyes?" Leon confirmed it, and Sora read out her cell number. "Next, Cid Highwind. 32 years old, blonde, mouth that would make a sailor run for mama?" Leon chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes." He gave him the number, as well as the one for Yuna.

"Alright, Rikku and I will find them," Leon said. "Get in contact with Vincent, and tell him the cell numbers for Rinoa, Irvine, Selphie, Quistis, and Zell."

"Got it," Sora said. "There's also a storage room, for things confiscated from prisoners. Should I head over there?"

"Only if you can avoid getting caught," Leon said. "Leon over and out."

Sora changed the frequency. "Vincent, are you there?"

"What? I can't hear what you said!" Yuffie said loudly.

Sora sighed. "Can you give the walkie-talkie to Vincent?"

There was a rush of static, and Vincent spoke. "You have the cell numbers?"

"Yeah, five of them," Sora said. He gave Vincent the numbers. "Got 'em?"

"Yes, we're headed to the first one right now. Stay alert," Vincent said, and he was gone.

"It's just us now, Stitch," Sora said. He looked around. The little experiment was gone. "It's just me now."

Sora pulled up the hood of his cloak. His spiky hair was a dead giveaway to anybody who might know him. He slipped out of the control room, and went quickly through the halls. He occasionally had to knock out a guard, and at two points used a bomb that released knock-out gas, but he finally found the storage room. It was locked tight. Sora slipped the lock-picking kit he had bought from his pocket.

"Hey, what're you doing?" said a familiar voice.

He spun around. At the end of the hall, was Riku. Instead of his Warder uniform, he wore normal street clothes, except for the black armor on his right arm. He had Soul Eater out, held in a battle position.

"Riku," Sora said. He pulled down his hood, but to his surprise, Riku didn't lower his keyblade.

"Hm, you just made my job easier, you know that?" Riku said. "You're a traitor, Sora. Not one report back. And then this. A jail break, of all things." He held out his hand. "Dark Firaga!"

A blaze of fire shot at Sora, who dodged out of the way. "What…what are you doing! A mission to capture me?"

"Not a mission," Riku said, taking steps towards Sora. "I came here to convince you to turn yourself in to the Warders. But I can see that you and I are not on the same page."

"No kidding!" Sora took a deep breath. "Riku. The Warders are destroying the worlds. They've become a poison, they're killing everything they touch. They're worse than the heartless. And how are you using magic without a charm or materia?"

Riku smirked. "The darkness is a powerful thing. You insist upon staying with the light, but what good has that done you? Alienating your friends, your allies. In this situation, we must fight fire with fire."

"Who's been telling you that load of garbage?"

"That's none of your business," Riku spat. He glared at Sora. "Fine then. If you won't come with me willingly, I can't force you. But when the time comes, and you've lost everything, don't expect my help." Riku stepped backwards, vanishing through a portal of darkness.

Sora took deep breaths, fighting back the urge to scream as loud as possible. He turned back to the door, and forgot about trying to pick the lock. He just kicked it wide open.

He grabbed a bag from a tabletop. Despite the number of prisoners, there were very few things stored there. Probably Warders were allowed to take whatever they wished. The weaponry and whatnot were kept according to cell number, so Sora quickly found many of their things. He quickly released that the backpack was magical, and could hold much more than it appeared, allowing him to put in Yuna's Dresspheres, Irvine's rifle, Quistis's whip, Selphie's nunchaku, Rinoa's blaster edge, Cid's lance, and a couple random materia and magic charms hidden away in corners.

Sora ran through the halls, not caring if he was seen or not. He was too mad at Riku to care at all. He didn't understand how his friend could say those kinds of things.

He finally got back to the manhole. He lifted it off, and started down the ladder, putting the cover back into place. When he reached the bottom of the ladder, he dropped down into the murky water. Everybody else was already waiting for him, along with those they had rescued.

"Good, you got out," Leon said.

"So we got everybody out?" Sora asked.

Leon nodded. He said the names of each of the freed as he pointed to them. When he finished, he said "Guys, this is Sora. He's the reason we were able to get here."

The girl he had named as Selphie bounded over to him. "So I hear you're from Destiny Islands?"

Sora nodded. "You bet."

"What's it like?" she asked. "I came here when I was just a little kid, and don't remember it very well."

"It's," Sora said, trying to come up with a phrase that could describe the islands. "Amazing beyond belief."

"Goddamnit! Can we reminisce later!" Cid said. "I need a cigarette, and I need to get outta here!"

From above, they could hear the sound of alarms going off. "I'm going with Cid on this one," Irvine said.

Sora touched the Blizzaga charm on his belt. Quistis saw him do this, and her eyes widened. "I've got an idea. If we can freeze the water, we can slide out a lot faster than we can run. Sora, you have any of our things in that pack?" He reached into his backpack, and pulled out the Black Mage Dressphere. He tossed it to Yuna, who changed into it immediately. He also grabbed the Ice materia, and gave it to Quistis. Rinoa started gathering magic in her hands.

With the four of them using their magic as much as possible, they were able to freeze the water enough for all of them to slide along it easily, freezing as they went. In a few minutes, they were coming out of the grate just outside of Seventh Heaven.

Zell was grinning. "That was really sweet, you gotta admit. Skating in April."

"Haven't changed a bit, have you?" Leon said. He was smiling as he said it. He was definitely glad to have his friends back. "C'mon, lets go give them the good news."

A week after the rescue, the Warders were still on high alert. But with so many more of them, it was a lot easier to pull things off.

"Fira!" Sora shouted. Rinoa had upgraded most of his charms. He held Nakage with both hands, and sliced the heartless into dust. He leapt at a Large Body, and made to slashes in an X shape, destroying it completely.

_We are young, but we have heart, born in this world as it all falls apart._ Sora was surprised by the sound of his ring tone. He snatched it from his pocket and checked the Caller ID. His heart skipped a beat. "Kairi," he said softly. She hadn't called him to two weeks, and any time he had tried to call her, he had gotten a busy signal or her phone was turned off. He had to tell her all about what had happened…and his choice about what to do.

A cold pain entered his forearm. There was a rush of wind beside him, and he saw that Yuna had blown the heartless away with an Aero spell. Barret shot it with a few bullets, then Paine had finished it off with her sword. His sleeve was ripped up, and he was bleeding.

Aerith came over to Sora, magic dancing across her fingertips. She tore the sleeve off the rest of the way, and gasped. Her magic had already gotten to work on healing the cut, making the symbol on Sora's forearm all the clearer. A blue keyhole, the Warder Insignia.

Leon heard Aerith gasp. "What's wrong? Did it have some kind of poison?" He saw the mark. "A spy," he said quietly. He grabbed the Revolver, and sliced at Sora, who was already out of the way.

Nakage glinted wickedly. Sora held out his hand, creating a shield. "Yeah. I'm a Warder. And I was sent here to infiltrate TSUNAMI. I ended up helping on so many missions with you guys, and helped to free the other members." Sora looked down to the ground. "But now I know. You won't ever be able to trust me after this, even if I could convince you of the truth that I've put the Warders behind me."

"Fat chance of that," Paine said. She tightened the grip on her sword. "Once a Warder, always a Warder."

"Maybe you're right," Sora admitted. "But, I can promise you that they will never get any information out of me about you guys." With a slight flick of Nakage, the shield vanished, and Sora ran as fast as possible.

"I'll take care of him," Barret said.

"No." Leon hooked the Revolver to his belt. "I'll go." He ran after Sora.

Sora ran all the way to the very edges of the city, beyond where the plates covered the slums. Rain was coming down lightly, but it wasn't too hard. He made his way to a cliff that overlooked the ocean. He pulled Nakage from his sheath, and stabbed the tip into the ground. He went to the very end of the cliff, and looked down. The water was twenty feet below him.

"Get away from the cliff!" Leon shouted. "What do you think you're doing?"

"How should I know? I'm only fifteen!" It was true. Sora had just been running to get away, but now, he didn't know what he was supposed to do. A tragic hero would probably commit suicide to avoid having to go back to the Warders, but he wasn't a tragic hero.

Leon growled in anger. "You lied to all of us! Even if you really did decide to give up being a Warder, that doesn't change the fact that you came here eager to spy on us!"

"You guys don't trust me, I already know that," Sora said. "But the Warders think of me as a deserter! I'll be lucky if they don't kill me!"

"Sora, you're always me, me, me," Leon said. "You're just as bad as the rest of the Warders!"

Sora closed his eyes. He took a step backwards, and another. "Tell everyone sorry, Leon." He well back, down, down, down into the water below, and sank to the bottom.

It happened to be, at that point in the ocean, that there was a tear in the world, the sort of tear that allowed parts of the Lifestream to slip through. And as Sora fell down, toward this crack, it widened, allowing Sora to fall through into the Lifestream.


	12. Ventus: Like a Brother

**Ventus: Like a Brother**

Ven watched the stars flicker in the sky. One had to be a space station, because it was moving. He sighed. Still a field man, on a world to fight heartless when they came. Only with orders from a superior, of course. Still only 2nd Rank. Still by himself.

Both Terra and Aqua thought he was immature. And maybe he was. Or maybe, he just tried to be the comic relief in their trio. They used to laugh when he did the chopstick nose trick, or quoted Monty Python and the Holy Grail, or dumped ice down somebody's shirt.

Maybe if he had tried to do something, he could have kept them together. But when Terra told them he had accepted the offer to become 1st Rank, he had just stood by silently, for once in his life. The wrong time in his life. Aqua had lit Terra's pants on fire, and stormed away. After helping him put out the fire, Ven had returned to his own room. The next day, when he tried to go talk to Aqua, she blasted him from the room.

After a few failed attempts at being a teacher, Ven was juggled around from world to world. For the last two months, he had been at the Kingdom of Disney, and the only eventful time had been when those heartless had shown up, and he had helped out that mouse and his friends. While he wasn't the highest-ranked here in Disney, he was still a commander, and that gave him command over all 2nd Ranks and many 1st Ranks as well. Why they didn't just make him a 1st Rank himself, he had no clue. Not that he particularly cared.

Ven looked down to the ground, from the top of the castle wall where he sat. He saw one short person with incredibly large ears running through the roads. More than once, he had seen this guy going through the streets, almost always headed for the apple tree just outside of town to sleep for the night. However, he usually had his friends, the duck and dog, with him. "Interesting," Ven said to himself. He jumped down from the wall, and dashed across the pavement without a sound, having had a lot of practice.

Mickey got up the hill quickly, and put his fingers to his lips. He let out a whistle that pierced through the night. His faithful mutt Pluto soon appeared, looking just as down as his master. Regardless, Pluto sat down at the base of the tree, and Mickey sat beside him, petting him over and over.

The dog suddenly raised his head, and growled. Ven came out of the shadows where he was hidden, hands raised in the air. Mickey recognized him as the man who had lied to the guard that time when heartless appeared. "Down boy," Mickey said. He looked to Ven. "What…Who…How…"

"Let's go with Who first. Commander Ventus, friends call me Ven," he said, holding out his hand. Mickey shook it.

"Mickey Mouse," he said.

"Where are your friends? The Duck and Dog?"

"Donald and Goofy? They were, uh…" He hesitated, probably trying to think of a believable lie.

"Captured by Warders for whatever it is you have been doing for the past month?" Ven queried. Mickey nodded, and was about to speak again. Ven interrupted him. "And don't dare tell me about what it is that you've been doing, because I really don't want to know."

"Can I trust you, Ven?" Mickey asked.

"Dunno, can I trust you?" Ven asked.

Mickey sighed. He stood up, and swept his arm to the side. To Ven's great surprise, a keyblade appeared in Mickey's hand. It was long, themed around space. A crescent moon formed the keychain. "The Star Seeker," Mickey said. "I don't know how it happened. I never trained with the Warders, or even had any kind of sword-fighting training. I just did it by instinct. When the higher-ups came to recruit, I was passed over completely."

Ven thought on this for a moment. "As for why you were passed over, I can't be sure. I can feel that you have a very strong heart, just by being near you. But there's two different theories I have. The first is that you're not human, and many of the recruiters won't choose non-humans. The other possibility is that over time, your suffering and sadness have strengthened your heart, eventually reaching this point where you can wield a keyblade, whereas you couldn't before." Ven summoned his own keyblade. "But one thing I know for sure, a keyblade is different from a normal sword, especially a rapier like I've seen you use. Let's see how you do."

Both were breathing heavily. Ven was in a pretty good mood, since he hadn't had anyone who could match him in speed ever, and the only person who could match him sword-on-sword was Terra, and he never saw him at all. But Mickey was just as fast as him, and almost as good with his keyblade as him.

"You're pretty good, I gotta say," Ven said as their blades clashed together again. Mickey jumped away, and threw Star Seeker like a boomerang. Ven avoided it, and sent a thunder spell at Mickey, who side-stepped it. Ven continued casting spells, trying to get Mickey with one of them, until one got him off balance, and he was shocked.

Mickey pulled his keyblade from the tree trunk. He stopped suddenly. The Star Seeker began to glow slightly. "I don't know what's happening," Mickey said, "but if I had to describe it, there's some kind of feeling I got. It's like a cork just popped out of a bottle. It came from the beach."

"I've heard things about different keyblades giving their owner some sort of ability, or augmenting their original abilities," Ven said. "Maybe yours lets you detect anomalies in the world. Either way, I'm going to go check it out." Mickey followed him, down to the beach.

When they got to the sand, Ven saw that there was somebody laying on the sand, apparently unconscious. As he got closer, and could see the boy more clearly, his heart skipped a beat. "No, it can't be," he said quietly. He stooped down by the boy, and did a quick check. He was breathing, his pulse was normal, but his eyes were closed. He pulled up the boy's right sleeve. "Shit, shit, shit," Ven swore, quite out of character for him. "That son-of-a-bitch, he's going to regret this."

"What is it? Who is he?" Mickey asked, ignoring Ven's choice of words.

Ven took a deep breath. "When I was still training on the Alpha with my friends-" during their dueling, Ven had told Mickey a lot about his own past, just to vent a little "-I had a knack for going where I wasn't supposed to, and I was really good at it." He still wasn't quite sure how he got into Terra's office. "One day, I got into this computer room.

"Despite what many people think, most of the Warders do indeed want to get rid of the heartless. But some are willing to go to higher measures to get rid of them. There was a plan on a computer, for some sort of bomb. It was still in just the theorization phase, but I could figure out what the effect would be. Total annihilation of all darkness on a world, and everything that contained darkness."

After a moment, the effect came to Mickey. "Everybody has darkness in them. So they were willing to kill an entire world, to get rid of the heartless there?"

Ven nodded. "After I made some planning, I went to Master Leo, and told him what I found out, and said that I was going to spread the word, and make him lose everything he had worked for. I told him that I had a special case hidden, tied to my life force, that would open if I died. It had everything dealing with the plans. But that rotten bastard…

"He made a threat against me, using a connection I had to this kid in another world, a kid I was like a brother to." Ven crossed his arms over his chest. "He told me that if I dared to go public with it, he would recruit the kid to the Warders. With the new knowledge of how corrupt it was, that was the one thing I never wanted to happen. So I made a deal with him. He would never be recruited, and I would never tell a soul about the plans."

"But you told me," Mickey pointed out.

"Because he broke his promise," Ven said, his teeth tight. "This is that kid that I met, all those years ago. And he has the keyhole tattoo." His hand glowed, and he touched the boy's forehead. He shivered, and pulled away. "Wherever he had been, he must have fallen into the Lifestream, and reappeared here. I have to get a healer." He yanked his cell phone out, and dialed a number he hadn't done in many years.

"_This is Aqua's line. I can't come to the phone right now, so leave a message._" Ven left a quick message, then pocketed his phone. He didn't have time to wait for Aqua to check her messages, even though she was the best healer he knew. Looked like he would have to go for plan B. The Warders, despite how much it pained him. He couldn't let somebody who was like a little brother to him succumb to the dangers of Mako Poisoning.

"Sorry Mickey, but I have to take him to Alpha," Ven said. He pulled the young man up to carry him on his back. "You understand, right?"

Mickey nodded. "And Ven?" The blonde gestured for him to continue. "I'm part of TSUNAMI."

Ven laughed. "No duh. It was a little obvious, even for me. I'll be seeing you later, hopefully." He ran off into the night.

Just outside of the Warder Compound, Ven stopped. He looked up at the sky, and sighed. "I swear, Sora. They will pay for what they've done, to both of us."

* * *

_A/N: I know, kind of short compared to other chapters, but I'll also be getting chapters out more often because I finished another long-term fan-fic of mine. I'll try to get out a chapter a week, most likely putting it up on Fridays._


	13. Sora: Awakening

_A/N: Sorry for not getting this up yesterday, it slipped my mind._

**Sora: Awakening**

Voices echoed through his mind. Somebody was screaming at the top of their lungs, and all that Sora wanted was for it to stop. He realized with a shock, that he was the one screaming. He was already losing track of himself. Was that his own voice, speaking incoherently? It sounded like it was a thousand miles away.

_Maybe…it'd be easier to just let go, right?_ he thought. Or did he? Perhaps it was another lost soul, there in the Lifestream. _Just, release it all, and be free of all this._ A voice burst into his consciousness.

_It's my lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to me!_

"I promised her," he mumbled. "A promise is a promise." Like a blitzball crashing through a window, that fog around Sora, paralyzing his mind, suddenly shattered. "I have to make it through this. I have, to get back to Kairi. I have to tell her, I love her! And I have to get to Riku, so I can punch him in the nose!"

He felt himself falling, down, down, down. Somehow, he was in water. An ocean. He flipped around in the water, and touched the bottom. _What? It's like I'm-but no. There's no way I can be in-_

The ground suddenly burst apart, doves flying around, revealing a glowing stained-glass mural. The water was gone. Sora looked around, and saw that the mural was the top of a platform. If he was right, the young woman depicted was a younger version of Commander Aqua. Next to her head were headshots of a younger Terra and Ventus.

_Step forward. You can, can't you?_ said a voice somewhere between Sora's ears. He took a few steps forward, until the voice spoke again. _Destiny is a powerful thing. Choose a path, and you will gain much. What do you seek?_

At the edge of the platform, in front of Sora, a pedestal rose up from the ground. A sword appeared on it. _The Power of the Warrior. The strength to defeat your enemies._

To Sora's right, another pedestal came up, with a staff on it. _The Power of the Mystic. The wisdom to bring peace._

To his left, a third pedestal appeared, holding a shield. _The Power of the Guardian. The courage to protect your friends._

Sora looked at each one, considering the advantages and disadvantages of each. The Power of the Warrior, while it gave strength, took away from knowledge. The Power of the Mystic gave wisdom, but lost stamina. The Power of the Guardian, gave courage, with none of the great disadvantages that the other two had.

He stepped toward the shield, and took it in hand. He brushed the dust from it. It had the image of a heart on it, with a crown at the top. "I choose the Power of the Guardian," he said. The shield turned into an orb of light, and entered his chest. He felt a sudden upsurge of power, before it faded.

Suddenly, the platform shone even brighter, and the light blinded Sora. He closed his eyes, until the light faded. When he opened them, he found that somehow, he was back in the training room of the Alpha. Riku was in the corner, sitting on a bench. Kairi was working on practice dummy. And Commander Terra stood in the center.

He walked up to Kairi. "What are you doing here? I thought you were training with Aqua?"

Kairi ignored his question. "What's your goal in life?"

Sora thought quickly. "To help people."

"Is helping other people really that important?"

"What? Of course, you know that!" But Kairi didn't seem to hear him. Sora quit trying to talk to her, and went over to Terra.

"What's most important to you?"

"My friends," Sora said confidently.

"Are your friends really that important?"

Figuring it out, Sora went over to Riku, who asked him "What are you afraid of?"

"Losing my freedom."

"Freedom. Hm," Riku mused. "Looks like that's something we can agree on."

_You want to help people. And yet you lied to TSUNAMI._

"What? Hey, who said you were supposed to make comments?" Sora argued with the voice, probably looking pretty stupid.

_Your friends are most important to you. But you intended to betray them._

"That's not true! I wasn't betraying them! I was trying to make the right decision!"

_You are afraid of imprisonment. That is the only truth you told here. You have much to learn. Let's try this again, shall we?_

The location changed again, to Seventh Heaven. Tifa was behind the counter, Leon sat at it, drinking something, and Mulan was at one of the tables.

Sora went to Mulan first. "What is your greatest heart's wish?"

This, time, Sora thought long and hard, to make sure that it was true. "To prove my strength."

"We think alike on that," Mulan commented.

Tifa asked him "Who is the closest to your heart?"

"Kairi," Sora said. There was no hesitation. She was definitely the most important person in his life. "I would do anything for her."

"I know what it's like to feel that way," Tifa said, and went back to cleaning the counter.

Finally, Leon. "What's the best trait for a person to have?"

This was the toughest one yet. He couldn't say honesty, because he hadn't been honest. He couldn't say loyalty, because he had betrayed the Warders. Then it came to him. "Unselfishness."

Leon thought about this. "I can see how you think that."

_You wish to prove your strength. Kairi is the closest to your heart. Unselfishness is the most important thing to you. Your words are true._

It all changed again. He was back on one of the platforms, but this one had Kairi on it, with himself, Riku, and three other people in pictures near her head. Two boys, and one girl. Sora didn't know their names.

_Young keyblade master. Your journey shall be difficult, but do not despair. For at long last, you have awakened to your destiny. You are the Master of the Keyblade from the Realm of Light. Push onwards, and continue on through your life, no matter the length. Enjoy the moments your can, and trust in your friends. All of them._

"What? Are you talking about…" Images of the members of Radiant Garden TSUNAMI floated to the top of his mind.

_Precisely. Even those you may have lied to. Godspeed, Sora._

Sora's eyes came open slowly. He was leaning on his side. He immediately recognized the smell of antiseptic, and recycled air. He was back on the Alpha, somehow. He carefully looked around. There was nobody near him at the moment, but across the room, he saw Master Leo and Commander Aqua speaking with each other. Sora relaxed himself, and tried to hear what they were saying.

"…You can do it, am I right?"

"Probably," Aqua replied. "But even if he does wake up, then most likely if I tried going after those memories, he would fight me. If I pressed him, I could completely destroy his mind."

"But the memories would still be yours, am I correct?"

"You bastard. You couldn't care less about other people than yourself," Aqua said. "The powers of a Princess of Heart are meant to help people. Not harm. Don't even try to tell me something like 'one life for as many as the information about TSUNAMI would save.' When has TSUNAMI ever killed somebody? Never, not once. Obtaining that information would do nothing except unjustly imprison a dozen people."

"Then as your leader, I command you to get those memories out of him," Leo challenged.

"I'm disinclined to acquiesce your request," Aqua replied sweetly. When Leo didn't reply, she said "Means no."

The sound of a keyblade appearing made Sora jump, and he hit his head on the headboard. "Ow," he said. Knowing that they now knew that he was awake, he sat up. There was no trace of the hostilities they had had just moments ago.

"At long last, you're awake," Master Leo said. He threw a look at Aqua, who stormed from the room. "I thought you were lost from us forever." He smiled maliciously. "We wouldn't want that, now would we?"

"Bite me," Sora replied.

Master Leo scowled. "Now, there is no more reason for you to stay here in the med wing now that you're awake. But you have a choice. You can tell me what you know, and I will allow you to go free from here, to go to whatever world you wish. Or you can be a martyr, and keep silent. But I will force that information from you. Believe me."

"Go to hell."

The older man shook his head. He came over to Sora's bedside. Faster than he could blink, he grabbed Sora's wrist, and a horrible burning sensation entered him. Sora gritted his teeth, preparing for more, but then it ended. Master Leo released him, and left the room without another word.

Sora looked at his right hand. There was a mark, like a Celtic knot, on the back of his wrist. It was a cold black, even though Sora was sure that it would have been bright red. He pulled the sheet away, and was glad to see that he was still wearing the clothes he had had before. His shoes were at the foot of the bed. He slipped them on, and headed out of the med wing.

As he walked through the passageways, Warders of all ages stared at him. Apparently, they knew who he was. They whispered to their friends, and Sora couldn't catch all of what they said. But whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

Sora came to his room, and unlocked it. Somehow, even after everything that had happened, he had hung onto that key. He stepped into the room, and to his surprise, Kairi was sitting on his bed, looking at his bronze insignia. She looked up, and ran into his arms.

"You're okay," Kairi said quietly. Sora couldn't see that tears were starting to form in her eyes.

Sora nodded. "All thanks to you. When I was floating in the Lifestream, my promise held me together." He pulled away, so he could look her in the eyes. "Remember? I promised that I would give you back your good luck charm." He reached into his pocket, and pulled out the thalassa shell good luck charm. He pressed it into her hand, and smiled.

The days passed quickly. Sora spent them dueling against other people. He had originally gone to the sword-fighting lessons and magic lessons, but was excused from them after beating the teachers at their own game. He learned a lot from those guys in TSUNAMI.

With all of his time spent in the training hall, he had become friends with that one guy, Tidus. They actually had a lot in common, and talked about Blitzball a lot. So far, he was one of two people who had actually said anything to his face about the incident with his mission. The other was Kairi.

It was after one of their matches-Tidus had won that one-that it had been brought up. They were sitting at the bench, the instructor off to do some work.

"So, you really infiltrated TSUNAMI?"

Sora nodded. "I helped them out a little."

"Wait, you helped them? I thought it was to gather information."

"Yeah, it was, but do you want me to be absolutely honest?" Sora asked. After a hesitation, Tidus nodded. "Most of the people in Radiant Garden live down underneath that plate. They are poor as heck. You know whose idea it was to make that plate? Sir Joseph Patterson, Warder 1st Class. 97 years ago, it was completed. Since then, heartless attacks have become so common, that people barely blink if they see a shadow scuttling around. And the Warders don't do a thing about it."

"Wow," Tidus said. "That's…scary."

"They get starved nearly to death. That's why the supply trucks get raided. People get hurt. That's why magic charms and weapons are stolen. Those who haven't done anything wrong at all are killed, or imprisoned. That's why I helped TSUNAMI free some of the prisoners."

Tidus wasn't in awe. He wasn't impressed. He was in shock. Hearing these things chilled him to the core. Versus Sora, who was burning. The seal had activated again.

"I hate this thing," he said through gritted teeth. Tidus, seeing that the seal was burning him again, placed a hand on his belt, and cast a cure spell. It managed to alleviate the pain a bit, until the burning went away. "Thanks. Again." Sora looked at the seal Master Leo had placed on him. It was slowly but surely growing in size. Whereas it had been the size of a quarter when first placed, it now covered half of the back of his palm. It was an intricate Celtic knot, just as he had first thought.

"Maybe you should ask somebody if they can remove it," Tidus suggested.

Sora shook his head. "I asked Amari. She and every other mage who could possibly lift this has been ordered not to. Anyways, she said that it would take someone with natural magic to lift it."

"What about your friend Kairi then? She's a mage, and would be willing to break the rules for you, right?"

"Tidus," Sora said slowly, "I'd kiss you right now if that weren't gay." He ran from the training hall to Kairi's room.

When he knocked on the door, Kairi opened it up, thankfully. "Hey Sora. Come on in, I've been bored ever since I came back here."

Sora smiled, and walked inside. Kairi closed the door behind him. "Kairi, you learned about healing, right?"

"Of course," she replied.

"Do you know anything about lifting a seal?"

"You mean that one that you have on the back of your hand?" Kairi asked. He nodded. "I might be able to remove it. Is it causing you pain?"

Sora nodded. "Every hour or so, it starts burning. And it's growing in size. It's nothing I can't handle, but I'm afraid about what might happen when it starts to get bigger."

"Alright, sit down on my bed," Kairi said. Sora did so, and she placed her hands over the seal. She focused her light magic into her palms. Her mind's eye traveled with the magic, toward the seal. That's where it went strange. As she got closer to it, it grew stronger. When it touched, dark magic leapt at her mind, stabbing at her psyche. A burst of magic sent her physical body flying across the room, colliding with the wall.

Meanwhile, the seal started to brighten, turning red. Sora felt a dull burning come from it, but not quite what it had been during the attacks. Before his eyes, he saw it start to move, and grow slightly. It didn't continue growing, but the burning continued.

Kairi stood up, and winced. "Master Leo put that on you, didn't he? He booby-trapped it, knowing you'd come to me for help. He made it react to light magic. I bet it's just going to get stronger, now. I'm sorry, I should have thought before trying to heal it."

"It's alright, you didn't know," Sora reassured her. "It's not your fault. I'll just have to deal with it." But even as he said it, he couldn't help but feel apprehensive about the consequences of his actions.


	14. Kairi: Destiny Place

**Kairi: Destiny Place**

Over the next two weeks, the seal continued to grow. It remained red, but never stopped burning. Sora was falling asleep all the time, thanks to the fact that the seal kept him up at night. Kairi stayed with him 24/7, in case the seal activated. They were so painful that at times, he would pass out completely. The attacks (as he had started to call the activation of the seal) were also increasing in length, sometimes lasting as long as ten minutes.

Sora was laying in his bed, still trying to recover from the last attack. It didn't matter. He still was in agony all the time. All of his day revolved around the anxiousness for the next bought of pain. Kairi hated seeing him like this, but wouldn't dare try to lift the seal again, for fear of making it worse. She placed a wet cloth on his forehead. He sighed in relief, and closed his eyes. Kairi cast a cure spell, and soon Sora was sleeping, for a little while. Whenever he slept, it was deeply, so Kairi took the opportunity to remove his shirt and examine the progress of the seal.

When she pulled off his top, she gasped. The knots had already completely covering his right arm, that much she had already known, but it looked like it was progressing even faster now. It had gone across the top of his chest, going up his neck, and was starting to go down his left arm and ribcage. Kairi wiped a tear away, and opened up her mind to the magical flow around her.

She felt the normal flow of energy from outside, but coming from Sora she could feel darkness. Not specifically from him, but from the seal. As far as she could figure, the seal wasn't physically burning him. Instead, it was creating the illusion of burning. So while he wouldn't die of burns, he was experiencing great trauma, and could die from the shock.

"Sora, please, I already lost you once," Kairi said, fighting back tears. "I can't lose you again."

"You won't," Sora mumbled. "I promise."

Kairi took his hand, and the pressure became to much. Tears ran down her face. "There has to be something I can do! Something that won't just make it worse!"

Sora turned his head, and looked up at the ceiling. "I'd say that Aerith might be able to heal me, but that's only if we could get to Radiant Garden, and we can't."

"Aerith? I've heard that name before."

"She's a natural mage. A healer. That's why she was able to grow plants, even down in the slums," Sora said. He took a deep breath. "Maybe it was just the church. Maybe Kingdom Hearts let the flowers grow." He closed his eyes. "I'm going to try and sleep a little more. G'night."

While it wasn't what she intended, Kairi's eyelids fell, and she drifted off to sleep.

Outside the door, Reeve Tuesti had been listening to them. Becoming friends, for lack of a better word, with Riku had unseen advantages. Riku had told him a lot about what was happening with the higher-ups that he wouldn't have found out about otherwise, only being third-rank. Reeve took a deep breath. He grabbed his key from his pocket, and gripped it tightly. "I've got a lot of work to do," he said, and headed off to his personal workroom.

A knock came at the door. Kairi sat up suddenly, and checked her watch. She jumped when she saw the time. It was four in the morning, which meant that she had fallen asleep for nearly six hours. She looked over at Sora, who was covered in sweat. She realized with a shock that she had been right. It was speeding up. Already the Celtic knot had advanced another two inches down his left arm, a half an inch up his neck, and an inch along his chest.

Another knock came to the door. Kairi walked over, and opened it up. "Down here, lass!" She looked down, and saw a bipedal cat of some sort. "Oi! You are Kairi Hikari?" She nodded. "Dun worry! Ye haven't lost yer marbles!" To make his point, he pinched her wrist.

"That makes me feel better," Kairi said honestly. "Who are you? What are you?"

He put a finger-claw-to his lips. "Quiet! There are some around that wouldn't take too kindly to me bein round! I am Cait Sith. A friend, who wishes to help ye and yer boy."

"You mean, get him to some help?" Kairi asked. Cait Sith nodded. "Can you get us to Radiant Garden? There's a woman there. If I can find her, and convince her to do it, then she might be able to help him."

"That's a lot o' ifs, if you don't mind me saying," Cait Sith said. "But, I suppose we have little other choice. Come now, we must hurry!"

Kairi nodded, and got Sora so she was half carrying, half dragging him. But only his feet were on the floor, with his arms slung around her neck. She had her keyblade still strapped to her waist, but she hoped that they wouldn't run into any heartless in Radiant Garden. It would be impossible for her to swordfight while carrying Sora, and she didn't want to leave him alone. "Let's go."

The plates in Radiant Garden were designed nearly perfectly. In order to keep the ground level, but prevent possible water damage, all rainwater flows through the upper plates, down to fall like normal rain onto the slums. Unfortunately for Kairi, Sora, and Cait Sith, it was pouring down in buckets.

They ducked under an awning, to get out of the rain for a moment. Cait Sith sighed. "Look, lass. Only way we're going to find this church is by askin' Sora himself where it is. Even what sector!"

Kairi swallowed, and nodded. She set Sora down carefully, with his head leaning against the wall. "Sora?" she said quietly. "Sora, can you wake up for a second?"

His eyes came open a crack. "Mm?"

"Sora? Can you tell me where the church is? Aerith's Church?"

"Sector 6," he said quietly. "9th street."

Kairi smiled. "We're in sector 6, we're on 11th street."

Sora nodded slightly. "Glad you got to sleep a little while, Kai." Even when he was in pain like this, first thing he thought of was other people. His eyes scanned around. "That's Cait Sith? Imagined a guy in a kilt." He looked around some more, and he froze, his eyes wide. "Heartless," he managed to choke out.

Kairi spun around. There were heartless. At least twenty of them. Cait Sith let out a low whistle. "Oi, this ain't gonna be fun." He shook his head. Kairi swallowed, reached into her pocket, and pulled out a fire materia. "Can you use materia?"

"Aye, that I can," Cait Sith said, taking the materia gratefully. He must have been a good black mage, because he started using it in ways Kairi hadn't seen before, creating giant orbs of flames and shields around the three of them.

She bent down, and started to lift Sora again, but he held up his hand. "No. Fight. I'll be alright."

Kairi tried to argue, but Sora was immovable in his stance. So Kairi stood in front of him, destroying any heartless that tried to come near. For a moment, it looked like they would win.

Suddenly, a heartless claw ripped through Cait Sith. He stumbled. "Dun worry bout me! Nice thing about having a stuffed body, ye don't have to worry about losin yer heart! Dun got one!"

It immediately became more difficult for Kairi, trying to fight the heartless off without Cait Sith. "I can't do this," she muttered. "I'm not good enough." She blinked. In that time, a heartless scooted past her, heading straight for Sora. Her eyes widened. Her heart skipped a beat. Her heart, stronger than any other Princess of Heart at that moment in her need to protect the person she loved.

Light flew around Kairi's hand, and she dove at the heartless, destroying it with a single stroke. She looked down at the blade she now held. Flowers decorated the teeth and handle, with a yellow star of some sort making the keychain. "Destiny Place," Kairi said quietly. She turned back to the heartless. Light magic flew around her and her keyblade, and with the slightest thought, the aura flew at the heartless, destroying each and every one.

"I can't believe it," Kairi said, examining her keyblade. She dismissed it with a gesture, and went back over to Sora. He was smiling, having seen her keyblade.

Sora twitched. The curse mark burned again, stronger than ever before. For the first time since he had gotten it, he cried out in pain. Kairi took his hand. "Please, Sora, hang on." She looked over at Cait Sith, who was repairing himself. He stood up, and nodded that he was good to keep moving. Kairi picked Sora up, same as before. "Sora, don't worry."

"I'm not worried," he breathed. "I'm with you."

Just as Sora said, there was the church. Kairi knocked on the door twice. The woman who opened it was quite a few years older than her. She wore a long pink dress, and had her brown hair tied up with a ribbon. "Are you Aerith Gainsborough?"

Aerith nodded. "Who are you? And who is-" She stopped in mid-sentence when she realized it was Sora that Kairi was carrying. The Warder who infiltrated TSUNAMI.

"Please. You have to help him," Kairi said. "Master Leo, the keyblade master at the Alpha Station, put some sort of curse mark on him. I tried to remove it, but my light just made it worse. It's expanding by the minute." When she saw Aerith's hesitation, she sighed. "He told me everything that happened to him. When he started out here, he was planning on doing what he was supposed to, spying on you guys. Over time, he deviated from that mission. Then, he saw a little kid lose their heart to a heartless. A Warder had been standing right nearby when it happened, and he didn't care a bit. Sora wants to be good, I want to be good, but don't you realize how hard it is when you live in a world like we do!"

Aerith was stunned. Both from the fact that a girl like Kairi had made an outburst like that, and nobody had ever made an outburst like that towards her. "Alright. Bring him inside, out of the rain." She pulled the door open wider, to allow them in.

The Flower Girl had Kairi lay down Sora on a bed of flowers, exactly as Sora had described them. Aerith removed his shirt, and gasped at the curse mark. "I've seen this once before. It was my mother who healed it. It acts like a living being. Even if I chase it out of one part with magic, it will strengthen in another. It will take a while. But I think I can do it." Magic traced along Aerith's fingertips, and she closed her eyes. The magic leapt from her fingertips to Sora.

Curious about what was happening, Kairi kneeled down and reached out with her magical sixth sense. She could almost feel the curse's effect, and how it was fighting against Aerith. It would come at her like a spear against her consciousness, but Aerith would slip through the cracks, and keep on going towards the core. Whenever it tried to harden itself to prevent her from getting through, she created her own spear with her mind, and stabbed through it.

At long last, Aerith stopped her advancement, and spread out her magic, just enough to catch the curse's power, and pulled it all out. Kairi opened her eyes, and saw that the curse mark was shrinking, further and further back, until it was back to what it had been originally, then that vanished as well. Aerith was breathing heavily.

Kairi cast a spell of energy-restoration on Aerith, who smiled gratefully, then Kairi turned to Sora. She realized that the sun was now high in the sky. It was almost noon. Time must have passed faster when Aerith was healing than they realized.

"Sora?"

"Uh-huh?" he said with a yawn. He smiled.

"How do you feel?"

"Better than ever," Sora said. He turned to Aerith. "Thank you. It's more than I deserve, for you to have gotten rid of that thing."

"What are you planning to do now?" Aerith asked uncertainly.

"I'm not going back to the Warders, that's for sure," Sora said with a nod. "Though I'm not sure what's going to happen if Leon ever sees me again. Probably kill me, then resurrect me, then kill me again."

Aerith swallowed. "Sora. The fact that you helped so much, but turned out to be a Warder, has wrecked TSUNAMI. It still exists, certainly, but there's a lot of tension. There was a vote just yesterday, as to whether TSUNAMI should be dissolved. It was one vote from being destroyed."

Sora thought about this. He carefully got up, to avoid damaging the flowers, and pulled his shirt back on. It wasn't his Warder Uniform, thank Kingdom Hearts, but his plain-old street clothes. Even with what anybody said, he had stuck with these clothes, and Kairi went into a back room to change into her pink dress, stuffed into a bottomless pocket. "We're headed to Seventh Heaven, Aerith."

"What? You can't! Leon will kill you! Or Cid, or Barret!" Aerith protested.

Sora shrugged. "I'm prepared."

"You don't even have any magic charms," Aerith argued.

"Don't need 'em," Sora said. "The Lifestream left something in me I didn't have before." He raised his hand, and a flame was produced, hovering just a little over his palm. "I know what I'm doing, okay?"

* * *

_A/N: Sora gains the power of natural magic, and aims to re-join TSUNAMI. What fate awaits our heroes? But first, what has happened in the Alpha Space Station in their absence?_

_I should tell you guys, next week's chapter is going to be a little late, up on Saturday or Sunday instead of Friday._


	15. Alpha: Seeds of Rebellion

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

**Alpha: Seeds of Rebellion**

Tidus was out late that night, wandering the corridors of Alpha as usual. He was walking carefully, as he was reading at the same time. He had found that Sora's room was open, so he looked around a bit, and found Sora's journal. Figuring it couldn't do any harm, he looked at it a little, and found that it started from a little over a month ago. It was a record of his mission in Radiant Garden.

He was completely absorbed in it, amazed at what Sora had experienced. It looked like the other boy had worked hard to make sure that he had gotten the details down, and even made a few profiles of the members of TSUNAMI.

"Yuffie Kisaragi, 18 years old," Tidus read aloud. "Weapon of Choice: Giant Shuriken. Materia: Cure and Teleport. Strengths: Very fast, tricky. Weaknesses: Distracted easily."

"Hey, what're you reading!" Somebody grabbed the journal from him, and Tidus spun around. It was Rai. Fuu stood by silently. Seifer was missing from their trio.

"Nothing! Just a book!"

Rai laughed. "Yeah, right. What's this?" He read the page. "Squall 'Leon' Leonhart, 19 years old, uses a Gunblade and a fire materia, an all-around fighter. Who's this guy?" He checked the front page. He turned to Fuu. "Hold it. This is for that kid, y'know! The one who betrayed us!"

"He might be a traitor, but listen to this," Tidus said, grabbing the journal away from him, and flipped to one of the pages. "This entry was a month ago. 'I talked with Leon today, and now I feel like I'm no better than the Wyvern that attacked the town. He wants me to help him break free his friends that were imprisoned by the Warders. He's counting on me, but I'm a spy! I say to myself that I've given up the Warders, but no matter what, I'll always have a part back with them. Maybe it'd be better to just admit it to them…'" Tidus slapped it shut. "Don't you see it? He had friends here, and there, that counted on him. And now everybody's treating him like a criminal." Rai rolled his eyes. "I'm serious! If you don't believe me, then read it yourself." He tossed it to Rai. "Maybe you'll learn there's more to life than arguing with people."

Tidus stormed away (patting his pocket to make sure incriminating pages were still there), and Rai snorted. "Geez, like I'd waste my time reading something like this, y'know."

Fuu glanced at the journal. She held out her hand. "You won't, I will." He raised an eyebrow, but handed it to her regardless.

Just over the next few hours, word got around quickly about Sora's mission in Radiant Garden. It started with Tidus telling the story, then after Fuu got Rai to read the journal, he started telling it, and somehow, the story remained mostly the same, especially since plenty of people wanted to see the journal for themselves. Some details were changed, but the biggest one was that some people kept on messing up Aerith's name, calling her "Aeris" for some reason.

While some people didn't believe it even with the journal, plenty did believe it. And they didn't like it.

Terra knew of this, and was glad that the story was getting around. Nearly everybody on the Alpha knew about the tale, as well as the journal. Master Leo was in a rage, ordering any trainees he came across to turn out their pockets. However, he hadn't expected for some of the higher-ups to try hiding it. The journal sat in a drawer of Terra's desk.

At the moment, Terra was not in his office, and he was not thinking about the journal. No, he was concentrating on what he was going to say to Aqua.

He stepped up to her door, and knocked on it.

"Who's there?" she called.

"It's me," he replied.

"Then go away!" Unbeknownst to Terra, a film of ice formed under his feet. When he tried to step back, he slipped and fell to the ground.

"And you call Ven immature," he muttered, about to walk away. He took a deep breath. "Please, can we just talk?" Silence. "Okay, then I'll talk, and you listen. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I've ever said to you, or failed to say."

In the room, Aqua's head lowered to the floor, and Terra continued. "I'm sorry that I accepted 1st Rank. I'm sorry for eating the last of your chocolate cereal." Aqua sighed. "I'm sorry for anything else I might be forgetting." He sighed. "But you know what I'm not sorry for? I'm not sorry for giving Leo my gold insignia, and renouncing my status as 1st Rank in favor of trying to get my friends back. I was an idiot, and a fool, and I deserve to get kicked in the shin, and in other places. Please, Aqua, forgive me."

The door slowly opened. Aqua didn't look into his eyes. "You know, that's the first time you've apologized for that. After the first year, I thought it would never come, and I resigned myself to just trying to become a great mage. And I have succeeded, but with that came a price. Losing the very people I once called my greatest friends in all the worlds." She looked up, and saw his blue eyes, perfectly honest.

"Maybe even more than friends," Terra added. They came closer and closer, and closed their eyes-

A camera flashed. Ven swore. "Shoot! I missed the shot, by this much!" he exclaimed. He sighed, and Terra and Aqua quickly pulled away from each other. Ven stowed away the camera. "So, does this mean that all that stuff is in the past?" CRACK! "YEOW!"

A red mark appeared on Ven's cheek. "Hey! What's that for?"

"For being an idiot!" Terra and Aqua said in unison.

Ven held up his hands in surrender. "Okay."

Aqua laughed. "What are we doing?"

"Being idiots, what else is new?" Ven pointed out.

"I think she's talking about the fact that we're doing that gag again, after ten years of barely saying a word to each other," Terra said. "But to answer your question, I hope so. Aqua?"

Aqua smiled, and nodded. "I accept your apology."

"What apology? Never mind, that doesn't matter. Now that I can, I need to tell you guys something," Ven said, insistently.

When Ven finished his story, Terra let out a string of cuss words so foul it would make Cid blush. "I know. We have to tell people! Get the story out! He'll be removed from his status if this gets out."

"Ven, you have to think about this," Aqua said. "Leo knows that you were the one that brought Sora here, and that you know that he broke his oath. He'll probably have already gotten rid of the files. There'll be nothing left, no way of showing that it's true."

"Oh, right," Ven said sadly.

"Besides, I'm sure that he has all of the masters under his thumb," Aqua said. "Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to pull this all off."

"I get the point," he said, glaring at her.

Terra sighed. "This is beyond anything I've ever been a part of before." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Things haven't been well in the worlds. Lies, betrayals. Things are going wrong, simple as that. I'm sure that you've heard of Riku, correct? The new apprentice to Master Leo?"

"Yeah, he's changed since his friend left Alpha," Aqua said. "He's taken the darkness. He was this close to using Dark Flare on Seifer Almasy the other day."

"What did Almasy do?" Terra asked in amazement.

"Doing what he always does," Aqua said, like it was obvious. Terra blinked. "The Alpha Disciplinary Committee? Ever heard of it?" When Terra shook his head, Aqua resisted the urge to strangle him, and Ven resisted the urge to give him an atomic wedgie, as a demonstration of what Rai sometimes did to those who couldn't pay Seifer and his gang.

"Dark Firaga!" Riku roared, blasting apart a training dummy. He spun around, and deflected a sword strike. "Sir."

"You're becoming very skilled, Riku," Master Leo said, nodding approvingly. "Which is why I've decided to give you an honor I've never given to another of my students. I would like to you attend war council."

"War Council?" Riku asked.

"A formal name for a gathering of the leaders of the Warders. We discuss major moves in fighting the heartless," Master Leo explained patiently. "Would you care to sit in? You may give your opinion on subjects, with my permission."

"I would be honored to come with you," Riku said, dismissing Soul Eater.

Less than two hours later, he was in the main gathering hall of the Alpha. There were twenty-four different men and women sitting around, each one a leader of a different space station. Some were not actually used for training, and some just trained a select few. Some of the masters, like Master Leo, had brought an apprentice with them.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said a wizened old man-leader of Rho. "One of my commanders has brought to my attention a very important issue. In the Olympus Coliseum, the Olympians have been to grow discontent with our work. If not restrained, we could end up losing many strong Warders to their forces."

The leader of Pi, a fairly young woman, said "What are we to do? Raw strength will not defeat them, nor purely strategy."

"Perhaps not," a handsome man of Beta said. "Or perhaps we do neither."

A quite ugly woman of Omicron replied with "What do you mean? Just send in a bunch of weaklings?"

"Precisely," Beta said, nodding. "If we were to bring in, say, 200 4th Ranks, then we could distract the Olympians long enough to have some more powerful ones restrain them."

Riku knit his eyebrows together in thought, and he looked at Master Leo questioningly. He gave a gesture for him to speak up. Riku cleared his throat. "Sir, what would happen to those 200 or so 4th Ranks?"

"A vast majority would, unfortunately, not survive," Beta said, but he didn't sound very sorry about it. "War requires sacrifices."

"But what about the potential of them? Most 4th Ranks are just teenagers, my own age. For all you know, half of them could end up becoming powerful, but instead are slaughtered!" Riku exclaimed.

"1/5 of them would maybe gain a keyblade, and then most would be in 2nd Rank for the rest of their lives," Beta said bluntly.

Riku stood up from his seat to look Beta in the eye. "You don't know that for sure. I thought that Warders were chosen specifically because they had strong hearts!"

Beta took a deep breath. "Leo, control your student!"

Master Leo put a hand on Riku's shoulder. "Sit down," he ordered.

"I will not!" Riku said, pushing him away. "I won't stand down while innocent kids, ones younger than I am, are killed uselessly."

All twenty-four masters were looking at him, in disbelief, fury, and even a few in curiosity. Master Leo hissed to him "Take your seat, Riku."

Riku turned to Master Leo. "Make me." He summoned Soul Eater, and stabbed it into the table. "Find yourself a new student. Just because I took in the darkness, doesn't mean I have no pride." He spat on the table, before leaving the gathering hall, alone.


	16. Sora: The Castle of Radiant Garden

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

**Sora: The Castle of Radiant Garden**

"Sora, are you sure about this?" Kairi asked as they entered the Seventh Heaven. It was completely deserted, not a soul in sight.

"Nope, but when have I ever been sure about anything I've done?" he replied, grinning. He walked over to the pinball machine with her, and hit a few buttons. The hidden elevator shook, and slowly carried them down. Quite noisily, too.

When the reached the bottom, they almost immediately found a gun in their faces. Kairi not so much, Sora, definitely. "Yuna, it's me!"

"Like that makes it any better," she said, glaring at him. "Who're you?" She was referring to Kairi.

"Kairi Hikari. I'm a friend of Sora's," she said.

Yuna didn't relax a bit. "You're not welcome here. Either of you. Get back to the Warders, before I use this thing."

"We have nothing left to do, we're now officially deserters," Sora said. "If we went back to them, we'd be killed."

"Why'd you come back here, then? Think you could help us? You've done enough for TSUNAMI," Yuna said. "You have to the count of three to turn around, and head back up the elevator, and your friend too. One…"

"Yuna, please, you have to listen, I think I can-"

"…two…"

"-help if you'll just give me a chance to try-"

"…three!" Yuna pulled the trigger, and an energy bullet shot at Sora. In less than a moment, a shield of light appeared, and deflected the bullet into the wall. Kairi was the one who had created it. When Yuna realized what she had done, her eyes widened. "A princess," she breathed. "You're a Princess of Heart."

"Yes, I am," Kairi said. Sora shot her a questioning look, as she hadn't gotten around to that part of her story yet. She looked away from him. "How do you know about the Princesses?"

"Because, I knew one," Yuna said. She lowered her gun. "She said that her name was Alice. She was the one who gave me my Lady Luck Dressphere. I met her in the prison." She looked straight at Kairi. "I suppose that I can trust you, but are you going to argue if I put binds on your boyfriend's hands?"

"What? I'm not her boyfriend!" Sora exclaimed.

"Will you promise that nobody will hurt him?" Kairi asked.

"Kairi!"

"I promise," Yuna said, nodding. She changed into her Black Mage Dressphere, and went behind Sora, and bound his hands with a spell. "There. Now you can enter."

Yuna went first, pushing open the door to the meeting place. Rikku was the only one to look up, and smiled at first, but her expression became flat when she saw Sora.

"What the hell's he doing here!" Cid said, jumping up with spear in hand.

"His hands are bound, and I promised her that nobody would hurt him," Yuna said, gesturing for Cid to sit down.

If looks could kill, Sora would have been dead as a doornail when Leon looked at him. It wasn't even necessarily that he was mad at him, but it was a mix of anger and disbelief. "What are you doing back here? How did you survive?"

"He fell through the Lifestream," Kairi said. "He ended up in the Kingdom of Disney, and was brought back to the Warders. He and I came here, since we didn't have anything left there." She winced internally at the thought of Riku.

"So? Why'd you come back here?"

"Because we want to help," Sora said. "The leader of Alpha put a seal on me, that grew and grew, and would have killed me from the pain!"

"Why here? What made you think that we'd let you back?" Sora was silent. "Exactly. You lied to us, repeatedly. How much of that story of yours was true? Maybe three words. You just came to Radiant Garden, but that's it."

Sora took a deep breath. "Want to know the truth?"

"How can I trust anything you say?" Leon asked.

"Because I've got nothing to lose," Sora replied. Leon rolled his eyes, but motioned for him to continue.

"I was sent here as a spy, to find TSUNAMI and get information about them so they could be taken down. I was given that sword, Nakage, by the same guy who gave me the seal. Some gifts are better than others, I guess." He swallowed. "I was recruited by the Warders when I was seven, earlier than anybody else. My dad really is dead, and I don't remember my mom much. She's still back at Destiny Islands. Haven't seen her since they took me away."

"I never was able to find her," Kairi added. "I was never sent to the same island in the archipelago."

"Right." Sora took another breath. His mom wasn't a happy subject for him. Didn't even get to say goodbye before they took him. "That's most of it. I did keep a journal of what happened while I was here in Radiant Garden, and…" His eyes widened. "I left it on the Alpha! Oh, no, if Master Leo finds that! Oh crud!"

"Sora, it's alright," Kairi said. "I'll call Tidus, we can trust him, I know it. I'll ask him to find the journal, and destroy it."

Sora tapped his fingers on the table. "I never said specifically where the base was, or how to get it, but I did say that it was on seventh street. I'm sorry, you guys, I didn't mean to-Kingdom Hearts, we have to get out of here."

Leon nodded. "Alright. We know that there's a possibility they could find us. Rikku, mind taking guard duty?"

"What, no! I want to hear this!" Rikku protested. "Make Barret do it!"

"Nuh-uh, I'm listening too!" Barret argued.

"I'll do it, me buckos," Cait Sith said, marching out.

Yuffie blinked. "Was that a talking cat with a Scottish accent?"

"We don't get it either," Sora assured her.

"Wait, why are you just doing this? How are you going to get out if those guys come?" Kairi said in alarm.

"Some of us can make portals. And if we get caught off-guard, then there are others across Radiant Garden, spread out." Leon closed his eyes. "If Yuna can trust you, I trust you at least, Kairi. Sora…no, just no."

A thought suddenly occurred to Kairi, as she remembered a conversation with Aqua in Twilight Town that felt like it was a lifetime ago. "What if we get Ansem the Wise on our side?"

"I assume you mean infiltrating the Castle of Radiant Garden and find him, right?" Kairi nodded. "Suicide mission, you'd be fools to try."

"Maybe not." Eyes went to Cloud. "You remember Lightning, right? She mentioned she might have a plan for getting in there, but it'd be difficult, and she'd need probably two people who could use magic. Throw in somebody with a keyblade, and it could be even easier."

"Another one of those ideas…" Leon looked to Sora and Kairi. "If you can find Ansem, and get him on our side…we might trust you."

_That's a pretty big might,_ Sora thought, but if it there was a chance, he'd be glad to do it. Anything to help TSUNAMI. "So, who's Lightning?"

Lightning, as it turned out, was a woman a few years older than Sora and Kairi. She had pink hair, wore white clothes, and had a weapon similar to Leon's Gunblade, except that it switched between the forms of a gun, and a sword. Evidently, she knew about Sora and Kairi being Ex-Warders, as she didn't react at all when Kairi summoned Destiny Place when Lightning asked them what weapons they carried. She'd been mildly satisfied with Sora's magic.

Sora had the exact opposite opinion when he found out how they would be getting into the castle.

"Let me get this straight. You're going to attack the guards at the front, and we have to get all the way to Ansem's office? That's not a plan, that's an Indy Ploy!"

Lightning ignored him. "I'm known to be one of the best fighters out there, if they see me then they'll bring in all the best." She flicked her wrist, and her Blaze Edge changed into its rifle form. "Our signal is 'Come on.' They'll think I'm taunting them, and you two slip past. If you see anyone, try to get past without them seeing you." Lightning handed Kairi a small pellet. "Deceptisol. It'll make you effectively invisible for five minutes, so only use it in an emergency."

Without giving either of them a chance to reply or argue, Lightning stood up, and walked into the square right in front of the castle, on the upper level of Radiant Garden, Sector 0. A few Warders nodded as she walked past. When she reached one with a golden insignia on his belt, the head of the guard in this area, 1st Rank, Lightning raised the Blaze Edge, and pulled the trigger. He collapsed as the shot hit him.

Almost instantaneously, an alarm went off, and Warders started coming out of the castle. Lightning's great skill was clear, as she took down 3rd and 2nd Ranks without a thought, and barely putting any effort into the rare 1st Rank. Any time a healer appeared she took them down quickly, since a white mage is the backbone of any fighting squad. The heavily armored ones were defeated quickly by a spell she used called "Ruin".

"Come on!" Lightning taunted, and Sora and Kairi went around the edge of the square, nobody noticing them. They stayed out of the way of another squad coming out, and slipped inside.

The two quickly got out of the main hall, ending up inside most likely the servant's quarters. "Alright, we're good for now."

The two of them went as fast as they could through the castle. Thankfully, it wasn't too hard for them to get around the Warders that they encountered. At one point, they reached a door where two stood guard. Even if they used the Deceptisol, they'd see the door opening.

Sora looked around, and suddenly grinned. "Hey, can you use magnet?" He pointed at a ventilation duct.

Soon, they were practically flying up the vents with the magic to carry them. They were able to go up maybe ten floors before their magic began to get low, and they had to use the hallways like a normal person.

They finally made it to the library. According to Lightning, there was a puzzle with the books. If they solved it then they would find a secret passageway, with a lift to inside Ansem's office.

Unfortunately, there were two guards, so if they wanted to take the shortcut, they'd have to take care of them. Kairi summoned her keyblade, and pulled out the Deceptisol. "I'll knock them out. We can both solve the puzzle, then." She set the pellet down on the ground, and crushed it with her foot. She wasn't invisible, exactly. However, the magic of it made it so that when you looked at her, your brain went a little fuzzy so you couldn't focus.

Sora stayed where he was as Kairi knocked out the guards quickly, before calling him over. The Deceptisol had worn off, allowing Sora to focus completely. Kairi was examining the books on one of the upper shelves of the library. "Look at this. There's seven different series of books over the library that are colored brighter. And look at this one, in the blue set." Sora examined the binding, and there was a small symbol on it. "I'm betting that putting them onto that empty spot on the shelf over there will open up the passageway."

"Nice, I'll go grab them."

Within minutes, Sora had found the books with the symbols on their bindings, and they slid them into the bookshelf. Nothing happened.

"Hold it…we put them in at random…there's got to be an order to them," Kairi said in thought.

At the same time, they both said "Roy G. Biv!" They quickly reorganized the books, to the order of cover colors Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. The shelf started to glow, then vanished, revealing a hidden room with a lift on it.

Suddenly, an alarm started going off. "Something tells me that they knew about this," Sora said. "Let's go!"

As Sora and Kairi took the sneaky way through the castle, another intruder wasn't too worried, since he was one of the best swordsmen of his generation.

He took down guard after guard, unstoppable, never in the same spot for more than five seconds. Even he was somewhat impressed with himself, in a small part of his brain not devoted to fighting.

As Riku dismissed his keyblade, he said "Maybe the Way to Dawn is stronger than Soul Eater."

_Seven Hours Earlier…_

He was pretty sure that he hadn't been followed, but he wasn't sticking around to fight out. Riku headed for the gummi hangar. And of all people, he did not expect to see Reeve Tuesti, muttering to himself.

"Oh, Riku, I thought I would see you here. Leo wants your head," Reeve said when he noticed the boy.

"Get out of my way, Reeve, I can take you down blindfolded."

Reeve sighed. "Running to help your friends, but you still act like a Warder. Threatening those weaker than you with your strength."

Riku flinched, but said "Who says I'm going back to them? They mean nothing to me."

"Sora is like a brother to you, and Kairi, well, I see how you are when you talk about her, getting drunk for the first time in your life when she rejected you for Sora."

"Three seconds, Reeve…"

"You're not thinking about this-"

"Two."

"Stop and listen-"

"One."

"Kairi has gained a true keyblade!" As that was the last thing he expected to hear, Riku became dumb-struck for a moment. Reeve continued, though he hasn't intended to tell Riku yet. "You remember Cait Sith?" It had been a while back that he had told Riku about his ability as an 'Inspire.' He could give life to machines and toys, and control them psychically. "I had him, so to speak, helping the two of them get to Radiant Garden. When attacked by heartless, her keyblade, the Destiny Place, appeared."

"Where are they now?"

Reeve hesitated, knowing Riku wouldn't like it. "They have…met up with TSUNAMI."

"What are they doing? Tell me straight."

"Waiting. They are going to infiltrate the Castle of Radiant Garden, and find Ansem the Wise, try to convince him to put restrictions on the activity of the Warders."

"To get TSUNAMI's trust back?" Reeve nodded. "Idiots. Fastest way to Radiant Garden?"

"I thought they didn't matter," Reeve said, half-jokingly.

"Half an hour ago, they didn't. Guess I've changed since then." He summoned his keyblade. The fangs in the strike zone had changed into a dove's wing.

"According to legend, the keyblade is a reflection of its wielder's heart," Reeve noted. "In any case, you're going to help your friends." From a pocket, Reeve produced a blue star-shaped crystal, and tossed it to Riku. "A star fragment. Focus on it, and it will take you where you want to go.

"Once in Radiant Garden, find somebody named Mickey Mouse, he's the original owner, and part of TSUNAMI."

Riku nodded. "Hey Reeve, how long _have_ you been playing for the other side?"

"Too long to have done so little. Now go, before Leo or somebody loyal to him comes."

_Present Time…_

Riku had found Mickey waiting for him outside of a place called 'Seventh Heaven'. He found out from him what Sora and Kairi were doing, and his first thought was to help them. Mickey had insisted on coming with him.

"So why did you come along?" Riku asked. The tip of his keyblade shined for a moment as he unlocked the door. Evidently, they hadn't expected somebody with a keyblade to come charging in, or it would have a seal of some kind on it.

"I'm still not sure, to be honest," Mickey said as he dismissed the Star Seeker. "But, I get this feeling the two of us are connected. Somewhere, or some-when, we're allies, friends even."

"A top-notch ex-Warder bound to the darkness, and a member of TSUNAMI who somehow has a keyblade himself, despite living in poverty," Riku mused. "Don't get how you see that." Riku clothes-lined a guard that came charging at him, before pushing him against the wall. "Which way to Ansem's office?"

"Hang a right, there's a stairwell that goes the rest of the way up, please don't kill me!" the guard pleaded. Riku hit him in the head with the hilt of Way to Dawn, and the guard slumped to the ground.

"Scum," Riku spat. Mickey frowned, but said nothing. "Let's get going."

Riku and Mickey dashed through the hall and up the stairs-all of the lifts had already been deactivated-and up to one of the highest floors. At the sight of an old wooden door with a metal panel engraved "The King's Study", Riku ran for it.

And who else should he run into (literally) but his two greatest friends in the worlds, coming from the other direction.

* * *

_A/N: So the three friends finally reunite! How will Sora react, how will Riku explain himself, what does Mickey have to do with any of this, how has Ansem the Wise been kept from doing anything all these long years, why am I asking you all these questions when I'm the writer?_


End file.
